I'm usually a lurker on this list.  It always has alot of information,
ideas, and opinions and I enjoy it very much.
 
My husband and I are owned by 17 ferrets.  They have the run of our house.
They have cages but the doors are removed so they can come and go as they
wish.  They all have their own places that they picked out as their own.
So even tho I don't have mine caged up I don't feel like I'm a bad mother.
I also raised 3 happy healthy children and didn't let them play in the
streets.  (This goes back to a post that made me feel like if I didn't
cage my ferrets I was a bad mom to both sets of my kids)
 
Out of these 17 ferrets there are 2 that are designated to come in at
5:30 A.M. EVERY morning (rain, sleet, snow or shine) to bite my husband
and my feet to wake us up.  As soon as we get up, (which is pretty quickly
if you have a fuzzbutt attached to your foot) we have a long line of
ferrets at our sliding patio door waiting to be taken outside.  Since it
is still dark, we have floodlights that light up the whole ferret proofed
fenced in yard.  And yes our neighbors love us for this LOL.  We have a
pegboard to keep track of who comes in and out and everyone is accounted
for multiple times while we're out there.  They have a huge sandbox that
they love to dig in, dirtpiles they dig in etc. some of them even go down
the slide.  Anyway, they have a great time for about an hour and a half.
They come to the door and I let them in while my husband stays out in the
middle of them.  We come in and I feed chicken gravy all the way around.
They also have their ferret kibble throughout the house.  They get treats,
and kisses, hugs and love.  Inside we have the rice boxes, toys etc..  We
go way out of our way to spoil our babys.  My husband is disabled so he
is home all the time.
 
I also am home all the time.  This is why we have time to do it.  The
reason we do it is because all of our kids are from 4 to 7 years old and
14 of them have either got lympho, adrenal, insulinoma, or a combination
of the above.  We want to make sure that they have the time of their lives
before it's too late.  I have lost 6 from this already and I feel better
about it because even tho their death was so hard I know that they knew
they were very much loved.
 
Though my way isn't your way, and your way isn't mine, that doesn't make
either way wrong.  All fuzzies are different as are we and I love the fact
that we can all talk about what we need to and get help from one another
on this list.  We need to stick together because there are so many people
out there that intensely dislike ferrets.  United we stand!!
 
Thanks for your time.
Lois
[Posted in FML issue 3765]