I was alarmed when I read the letter from Rhondda Lake about putting an 11
day old kitten in with ferrets.  Maybe I misread it, because 11 days is
awfully young to be away from its mother.  But in any case I feel an
urgency to relay a story to you that happened to me regarding exactly that
issue.
 
This past summer I was finishing up school in order to make a career
change.  I was going to school all day 9-5 and then working from 6 to
midnite in the local grocery store.  I was staying with a friend who was
kind enough to give me and my 6 fuzzies shelter until I was able to finish
up school.  Time was limited with my gang for those three months and they
have been very forgiving.  Thus, they now have their own room in our new
place and were switched to Totally Ferret (see yellow ferret posting a few
days ago).
 
As it turned out, the household ended up being blessed with 4 adorable
kittens born to my roommate's cat in June.  My "room" was in the livingroom
with the ferrets' cage in the corner.  When I cleaned the cage, I had to
put boards up in front of the kitchen doorway to keep the fuzzies out of
the rest of the house while I was doing my doody duty.
 
While cleaning the ferret cage one day in late June, the phone rang while
I was in the middle of this chore and I was distracted for only about a
minute.  When I hung up, I first turned to the cage to continue the job,
but noticed that the room was lacking in ferrets.  I went to investigate.
(Oh, No!).
 
As it turns out the biggest guy defied the barrier I had put in front of
the kitchen door and the others had followed.  I found 4 of them in one
bedroom discussing the pros & cons of stashing an action hero in the hidey
hole when he was wearing a spiked cape.  In the other bedroom I discovered
the mother cat racing frantically back and forth from one end of the room
to the other.  Under the bed I found 2 of the four kittens and the missing
ferrets scattering away in the other direction.  I looked in the closet
where the mother cat was visibly distressed and found the other 2 kittens
unharmed.  I went back to the bed and inspected the kittens there.  One was
dead and the other was breathing stressfully.
 
I picked up the kitten.  I was so shocked that for a moment I thought I
could just rub the fur down and no one would see the hole in its side.
Then the gravity of what had just happened started to sink in.  I sat on
the floor and just cried and cried.  I was personally responsible for
distress and pain to multiple living creatures.  I ended up shamefacedly
showing up at the local dog pound and told them that I found the kitten
that was suffering terribly and asking them to put it to sleep.  (Remember
I was living on a grocery store salary).
 
As it turned out, I was more upset than my roommate was and she forgave me
and allowed me to stay the summer to finish school.
 
I never got over that, and I've never shared the story with more than one
other person.  I've been so ashamed.  I feel better telling this story if
it might save someone else from making the same mistake.
 
I don't know if they were playing with the kittens or they actually
intended to kill them.  They have also broken into a live mouse tank and
stolen/killed mice.  This should have been a tip off to me then.  But I
hadn't lived in a house that required mouse feeding to reptiles in about
2 years and had forgotten the incident.
 
Whatever you do, do NOT assume your ferrets are going to be warm fuzzy
parents to a stray kitten.  Or trust them in the same room as your son's
hamster.  Or think for one second that the new baby green iquana is not
of interest to them.
 
*cringing now to the flames that will surely follow this posting*
Sincerely, Dee, Mooch, 'Spresso, Breezely Bruin, Charles, Dash & Vera.
[Posted in FML issue 2875]