I've done a lot of reading up on the subject, and feel I'm prepared - I've
decided to bring a cat into my home, to share life with me and my two
fuzzbutts.  I had made up my mind to acquire a Russian Blue kitten from a
breeder, but decided that I should at least visit the local humane society
to see what kittens they have available.
 
Wouldn't you know it, within a few minutes, I fell in love with "Prince," a
5 month old Himalayan.  He's a regular purrbox.  The shelter staff were
very doubtful about bringing him into the house; they were mainly concerned
that even at 5 months he was too old to acclimate to living with ferrets.
He might treat them as prey, or not be able to deal with their
"friendliness."
 
I had naturally planned a kitten-ferret meeting before signing the dotted
line (and of course, the shelter required it), so I ran home and picked my
babies up and brought them back to the shelter.  We took the ferrets, in
their cabin carrier, and "Prince" into a room.  We sat the carrier on the
floor, and let "Prince" walk around.  He would sniff the carrier, then get
distracted by other things around him, let us pet him, sniff the ferret
nose or tail coming through the bars of the top of the carrier.  We decided
this was a good initial sign.
 
Carefully, I brought out Nusa. With extremely vigilant supervision, we let
her walk around free with the kitten. He initially sniffed a little, and
let me pet him some. He then followed her as she did her typical ferret
surveillance of the room. Occasionally Nusa would turn around, start to
sniff him, and he'd back away.
 
The two shelter staff members who supervised the meeting agreed that this
was a very positive meeting, and were confident that with a very slow and
careful introduction at home, the cat and ferrets could live together.  In
the short term, the cat will have his own room (my bedroom) and the ferrets
will not be let in during their playtime.
 
I'm hoping anyone with any experience with introducing a not-quite-kitten
to a ferret household, and specifically a Himalayan, can give me any
specific pointers.  I know to supervise all time they have together until
I'm absolutely sure that they won't hurt each other.  I'm pretty convinced
that the biggest issue is going to be the ferrets ganging up on the cat,
not the cat ganging up on the ferrets.  Is this realistic?  If so,
obviously the issue is to make sure the cat has somewhere to go to get away
from the ferrets when needed.
 
Any and all advice from experience would be appreciated!  Meanwhile, I'm
working on thinking up a new name for my new baby, and eagerly awaiting
Friday, when he comes home for the first time (he has to be fixed first).
 
Thanks,
Stevi (hey, kids, be on your best behaviour!)
Nusa (was that fluffy fuzzball a new playtoy for me?)
Fresno (hey, i didn't even get to get out of the cage!)
 
--
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"Thousands of years ago, cats were worshipped as gods.
 Cats have never forgotten this." - Anonymous
[Posted in FML issue 2491]