>Any ideas on making a deck ferret friendly?  We now have a wonderful two
>level deck and the upper level has gates and bars along the sides.  I was
>thinking of putting wire along the inside of the deck so my little
>darlings can go out on the deck with supervision of course!
 
We got some rolls of plastic mesh at Home Depot--it's like hardware cloth
but the mesh is wider.  Since it's plastic it's easy to work with--I just
cut it with scissors and attached it with a staple gun.  You have to be
careful because the staples can cut through the mesh.  You also have to
be careful if your ferrets are the crazy Tasmanian Climbing Tree Ferret
types! :-)  One of ours is and she wanders along the railing till she gets
to my flowerboxes.  Then she stops for a snack.  The others climb partway
then drop off (no upper-body strength, the little wussies!).
 
We have their sandbox set up out there, and a kiddie pool but we haven't
even filled it yet because they seem to enjoy just sliding around in the
empty plastic pool.
 
Our deck is covered too, the roof of the house extends over it (yeah
yeah, it's a porch I guess, but it's built like a deck).  You may want
to consider how much sun it gets and rig up a shade with a tarp.
 
--Skyla
[Posted in FML issue 2697]