It pains me to admit that I'm loosing the battle of wills against a ferret!
 
You see I've recently moved.  To tell this story I have to go back in time
a bit.  Two, of my five ferrets, have always been obsessed with getting
into the couch.  One of them slightly more so than the other.  Actually,
obsessed does not even come close to describing Juliette's desire to concur
the couch.  It was so bad that when we let them out one of us always had to
stand guard over the couch to keep her out of it.  We would have to get
ready for work in shifts.
 
When "I" finally decided to move out I purposely left the couches behind,
with the exception of the sofa bed which was going to go in the spare room.
NO ferrets would be allowed in this room!  I then bought a new futon and
futon chair for the living room, patting myself on the back for my genius
and looking forward to seeing Julie's frustrated face when she discovered
there was nothing to get into.
 
Everything was great for about 2 weeks.  Then Julie discovered where the
sofa bed was when I forgot had to go into the spare room to get something
and she of course followed me in there (along with all her buddies).  In
the time it took to round them all up and get the door closed again she of
course had gotten into the sofa bed and her obsession began anew.
 
Since then she spends every single second digging at the door to the spare
room.  There is just enough of a gap under the door that she can get her
claws under there and dig dig dig.  Occasionally she'll grab the door with
her teeth and pull.  I'm just waiting for the guy downstairs to come
pounding on my door from all the noise she makes.  Who wants to get woken
up to that at five in the morning!  Okay so I'm supposed to be the smart
one here, right!  So I'm thinking and thinking and I think...well if I put
a carpet sample under the crack and close the door on top of it she won't
be able to get a hold of the door.  Well it worked...sorta.  Now she digs
on the carpet, banging her head repeatedly against the door and strewing
bits of carpet everywhere.  Note: I have hardwood floors.  Okay so that's
not working as well as planned...so next I go out and pay $50 for a piece
of Plexiglas that I can bend into the door frame.  Hey not bad!  Fits
well...she can't get at the door and she can even see into the room.
Should work great right!  Wrong!  If I thought she was obsessed before you
should see her now.  Now she can actually see the sofa bed!  Last night she
spent 2 1/2 hours digging at the Plexiglas.  No food, no water, no poop
break.  Every now and then she'd stop and lay there totally exhausted,
puffing away for a minute or so, gaining her strength back and then she'd
start up again.  I even felt guilty about teasing her in that way.  So now
I'm back to the carpet again which although messier was at least quieter.
 
Have I been defeated.  Maybe.  I'm definitely running out of ideas!
 
Barb Gustafson
Alberta Ferret Society
[Posted in FML issue 2777]