>Okay, the great question "How to ferretproof a laundryroom" has appeared,
>and I would like to suggest a few things.
>If at all possible, keep the ferrets completely out of the laundry room.
>This is the easiest.
 
Agreed.  One thing that I haven't seen mentioned yet though, is being so
very extremely extraordinarily careful about not laundering your ferrets!
One of our club members dryed one of their ferrets and it was both a
horrifying and painful death for the little critter.  Recently the same
happened to another member's kitten.  Ferrets *will* climb into a warm dryer
for a nap, and remember how deeply they sleep -- if you aren't on the
lookout for them, you might never know they're in there.  And washing
machines are full of little places that easily catch and injure little
ferret feet (aside from the infinitely worse scenario of drowning them in
the wash).  So keeping them out of the laundry room really is the best
option.
 
>Sheena shows cats so she'll have more to say on that.
 
I think what I like best about ferret shows is everyone is *so* friendly
with one another.  At cat shows, we have always found everyone extremely
competitive.  Even the "Household Pet" people get all snooty and give each
other the evil eye.  And if you're looking for rough handling of the animals
at a show, ask me -- one judge banged our Icky's head no less than 4 times,
*hard* trying to get her back in the show cage in the ring.  No wonder the
cat's a bit "touched" in the head.
 
There are no requests for proof of vaccinations, nor are there health checks
at Canadian cat shows.  Icky came home with a respiratory infection from the
last one.  We've been to large ones (that means about 100 exhibitors) and
small ones (that's about 30), so size varies a great deal.  For some reason
the small shows always end up on the big halls and vice versa.
 
Finally, the great joy of ferret shows is the emphasis on *quality* and
temperment -- ferret shows encourage positive ferret attributes, like
health, size, condition etc etc.  One breeder I met at our last show said
she was getting out of breeding; in her particular breed, the standards
encouraged short, flat faces -- so flat, this breeder told me, that two
"show quality" cats she had purchased from another breeder had to be hand
fed from a spoon because they were so deformed they couldn't eat out of a
dish without drowning in the food being forced up their nostrils.  Both cats
were considered "perfect examples of their breed" by the judges, and one
took home a Best of Breed ribbon.
 
Recently a friend of mine (ferret breeder) bought 5 kits and the parents
from some back yard breeder.  Cost her a pretty penny too.  She did it
because 4 of the 5 kits had drastic underbites -- their lower "canines" shot
right up into their noses -- and she didn't want to risk the line being bred
again.  She had the whole family altered and with her they remain still.  To
me, this is one of the great things about the ferret world.  Most breeders I
know also do rescue work, and also work hard to preserve the integrity of
their breeding stock.  Ferret shows are both acknowledgement of their hard
work, as well as being a place where the public gets a good idea of what a
quality, well loved ferret is.
 
Shelters who want spectators to get a peek at the sadder side of the ferret
population explosion should do one fo two things: run a table themselves (or
get volunteers to do it) and inform the public about rescued ferrets, or
encourage people who've adopted ferrets from them to enter them in the shows
and show how great a rescued ferret can be too.  It's a win-win situation
all around, isn't it?
 
Sheena - [log in to unmask]  | "To Err is Ferret ... To Forgive|
VP - Ferret Association     | "... Well, That's Our Job"      |
     of Greater Vancouver   (Wherret Web Pages Coming Soon!)
  We're on the Web! http://www2.portal.ca/~cmc/ferrets/fagv/
[Posted in FML issue 1797]