I've been reading through the list daily for months now and I've finally
decided to ask the following question.  The problem never seemed to be that
extreme to me until the recent death of one of "our" babies.
 
My boyfriend has(had) 3 ferrets (heywood, logan and madeline).  He is pretty
rough with them at times and this frightens me.  One of them, Logan, seems
to only go to the bathroom on himself...he refuses to use the litterbox and
goes everywhere but where he is supposed to.  He has had this problem for a
while now and has gotten severely "scolded" and tossed into a little box in
another room all by himself with just water and a little bit of food where
he peed and pooped all over himself.  Everytime he was put back in with the
others, he just did the same thing and the cycle repeated itself with poor
Logan getting hit and thrown in a box to live by himself.  Recently the
older of the 3 died and my boyfriend really went into a severe depression
but I wonder if he died because my boyfriend likes to toss them around a bit
when they are bad.  He was 7 years old and (since I really don't know too
much about ferrets) I would assume he was pretty old....but I can't help but
think that my boyfriend is just a little too rough on them.
 
The other day I went to visit Logan in his little room (he now has his own
cage) and when I went to pick him up he just seemed to go all manic.  He
didn't want to be petted or kissed and he didn't even kiss me back which is
unusual.  All he could do was squirm and jump in my arms...wanting to get
away.  Needless to say I was quite upset by this and still am which is why
I'm writing to you......I'm just frightened that Logan is "going bonkers"
since he's been tossed around so much and made to live in his own filth.
What can I do????  Unfortunately, I do not live with my boyfriend and can't
watch the babies 24 hours a day but I know what they go through....I've seen
him first-hand.  I've even walked out on him for being so abusive.....
 
please let me know what you think and I apologize for not being the most
literate of souls...
 
debi
 
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                                       "How would you like to die?"
                                    "EXPLODE" -- Hunter S. Thompson
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[Posted in FML issue 1398]