How to you teach a ferret not to steal all the toys from a 90 year
old advanced Alzheimer's person who is permanently confined to bed?
The Villain in this case is Cappy (alias Happy Cappy).

He sneaks up on her bed and takes the doll first, then comes back for
the large red frog. Later, her will even steal the large pink pillow
that hold the bottle of milk. With the weight of a milk filled bottle
and the large pillow, it is 10x his size and 6x his weight. But that
is no problem for Cappy. The bigger the better. He is a professional
toy-hauler.

There has been tough-of-war games over these objects with the elderly
person yelling and Cappy hissing. Then there is the stare-down between
the two. Whoever loses the battle becomes quite upset. My job as a
caregiver has turned into the job of a referee. If you can imagine
sitting down with a cup of coffee and seeing a full size pink pillow
moving through the room and down the hall by itself. (Cappy is hidden
under the pillow) One could think we have ghosts here.

Now every time this person sees a ferret (even the nice ones that don't
steal}, she will grab all her toys and hold them tightly and start
screaming, "Mine, Mine, Mine."  If Cappy see and hears that, then the
game is on. He runs and jumps on the bed and grabs a leg of a toy,
starts hissing and a battle pursues. How do I bring peace back to the
house?

Deva

[Posted in FML 6697]