Ferrets and puppies seem to do well.  Max was my first dog and Mr. Fuzzy
Wuzzy was my first ferret, both gone now :-(   When Max (shepherd mix) was
a puppy, Mr. Fuzzy Wuzzy would clamp onto his cheek and hold on.  Then Max
would step on Mr. Fuzzy Wuzzy and pin him down. They both seemed to enjoy
it.  Max grew to about 90 pounds and was always very tolerant of ferrets.
When Max got older, and my younger ferrets got more obnoxious, I kept them
separate except for some supervised play.  Merlin would leap up, and Max
would push him across the floor with his giant nose.  But the ferrets also
nipped at Max's ankles, so I kept them separate, as it was annoying to Max.
 
I adopted the dog I have now, Lily, when she was 4-1/2 years old.  She is a
golden/some kind of herding dog mix.  She tolerates the ferrets, but they
are still obnoxious.  For the most part I keep them separate except for
Clover, who doesn't bother her.  I don't think letting ferrets nip at dogs
or cats is good for anyone; it's stressful and invites trouble.  Sometimes
I hold the ferrets and let Lily smell them, just so she doesn't forget they
are family members.
 
I almost lost Mr. Fuzzy Wuzzy to a neighbor's mixed shepherd, when Mr. Fuzzy
Wuzzy went through a screen.  It really depends on the individual dog and
the ferrets.  You must be very careful around adult dogs if you don't know
how they are with small animals.  Some are great, some will kill a ferret
in an instant.
 
Speaking of screens--you can never be too careful with screens.  Hard wire,
not soft mesh, is good advice (someone posted recently).  I keep my ferrets
in a couple of rooms when I'm not home, with windows open only slightly
unless they are unreachable.  The two times I have had ferrets escape
unnoticed, I was right there in the house--once through a broken screen,
once out the door.  (And then there was the time Prince Charming got in
the wall, but we were visiting.)
 
A while back there were some very good posts about choosing what's right
for your situation--cages, rooms, run of the house, etc.  I had Mr. Fuzzy
Wuzzy a couple of years before I learned that some people cage their
ferrets.  He and Cinderella always had free run of the house, but they were
both good with the dog and cats.  Now I rotate ferrets between rooms (one
of them is the bedroom) and the rest of the house.  I enjoy the posts about
what ferrets do in the middle of the night.  Epcot often has some very
important project that he needs to work on between 1:00 a.m. and 4:00 a.m.,
usually relocating the laundry.  He is a very hard-working, very driven
ferret, works hard, plays hard.  I am guessing he is a virgo.
 
The other day a flock of geese flew overhead and Roxanne and Epcot stood
on their hind legs to listen.  (Maybe it's time for another trip south to
DisneyWorld.)
 
Ronnie in Mass.
[Posted in FML issue 2406]