To Barb Clay:
What a beautiful letter you posted.  I'm overjoyed that Rocky s will
be having an outdoor playground soon.  I can just imagine all of those
gorgeous ferrets I met having an enriched life, running, frolicking and
DIGGING in all kinds of weather.  Their overall health, both mental &
physical, can only improve.
 
To all of the other folk that emailed me wanting to know how to build an
outdoor enclosure: I started to write to you individually but it became
too time-consuming.  Sorry.  I thought I would just describe a general
idea here for you to pick up on if you can.
 
1. Think big.  The more ground space you can give, the more variety of
habitats the ferrets can have.
 
2. Allow the ferrets to have access to Mother Earth.  They were born to
dig and it is a wonderful exercise for them.  Anything else is just
another cage
 
3. Plant trees, shrubs and ground covers.  Most ferrets are acrophobic
and prefer to play under cover.  For a quick cover, I plant pumkin seeds,
sweet potatoes or some other fast-growing creeper.
 
4. The perimeter fencing doesn't have to be very high, but needs to be
smooth and continue underground for 2-3 feet so that the ferrets can't
tunnel out.
 
5. The fencing can then be extended as high as you like (so you can run &
play with your ferrets or sit and have a glass of your favourite tipple
while you watch them) with chicken wire and covered over the top with the
chicken wire too.  The smooth part of the perimeter will occlude mice,
ants etc and the netting cover will stop birds of prey, dogs, etc from
entering.
 
6. Allow access to the playground from the house by cat-door, tunnel, or
something so the fuzzies can go there at will.
 
7. Yes, have a pond and you can even make it very deep as long as it is
allways kept filled to the top and designed so that ferrets can get out
after a swim.
 
8. Let your imagination run riot in providing a safe joyous area for you
fuzzies.
 
Love & Dooks,
Shirley
[Posted in FML issue 4942]