We lived in a no-ferrets apartment with anywhere from 1 to 9 ferrets (I'll
get to that shortly) for a whole year.  The worst part about it is that you
have to smuggle them out and can't just take them for walks in the backyard.
We got an ordinary picnic basket for getting them to the car where we would
dump them into a kitty carrier (usually disguised with a blanket).  If you
can find a ferret friendly apartment, do it, because that is no way to live.
If you can't, see if you can find a place with cool maintainance people.  If
they don't snitch on you, you've got nothing to worry about (except your
neighbors).
 
A funny story about last summer's ferret-sitting adventures...
 
A friend contacted us to see if we could watch his ferrets for a couple
weeks while he was away.  He had three, and we had three, so it would be a
total of six in the house.  I figured we could handle it for that amount of
time, so I said yes.  Then, some other friends contacted us with the same
request, for only about four or five days, though.  At first I said no,
because this would bring our total up to nine, and that would be insane
since we weren't even supposed to HAVE ferrets anyway.  But they really
needed the help and so I arranged to have them bring the cage, too.  The
other friend brought a kitty carrier, we had a cage and kitty carrier, we
were going to be able to do it!
 
So we get these NINE ferrets into the house, and what happens?  HEAT WAVE!
And we've got no air conditioning.  And I've got a job that I can't quit so
I can sit at home and freeze popsicles for the fuzzbutts.  And the freezer
will only freeze ice between the hours of midnight and four am.
 
Then what happens?  We are notified that maintainance needs to change all
of the light fixtures in the house.  Yes, we have nine ferrets, no air
conditioning, some of them are panting, and someone is going to come over
and change every ceiling light fixture.  ARRRGGHHH!
 
My hubby ended up transporting them all to the basement (thank god for
basements), where it was only about 90 degrees.  He spritzed them with water
intermittenly and turned the fan on them.  They were housed in a cage and
two kitty carriers and maintainance left without a clue as to the lurking
mustelids.
 
Oh, did I tell you about the one who was a barracuda?  The cutest one I ever
saw....;) Overall, I loved having all those little lovies stay with us, but
what a lot of work!  I don't know how the shelter people can handle 20 or
more!
 
-Catherine
[Posted in FML issue 1788]