My fiance and I moved out to San Diego recently with our two little
sweeties.  So far things are going well, and they are enjoying life
"underground." Our main concern right now is to find a trustworthy ferret
sitter.  We tend to do a lot of travelling on the weekends, and we like to
have someone come in to play with the little ones if we are going to be
gone for more than one night.  We would love to trade ferret sitting with
anyone in the northern region of San Diego.  We would also be grateful if
anyone could recommend a good professional pet sitter who is used to
dealing with ferrets.  BIG has generously offered to forward messages to me
if you would like to respond privately rather than posting to the list.
 
After some debate, we decided that the best way to get the little guys into
California would be to drive out here with them.  My parents tested the
route before we came, and it worked very well.  We drove out to Las Vegas,
and then we took 95 south until it hit Route 40 just west of Needles.  We
took 40 west to Barstow and then went south on Route 15 down to S.D.  We
saw several field mice, hares, and coyotes along the way, but no people.
Just to be safe, we did the drive in the middle of the night.  We tuckered
the ferrets out before crossing over, and then we stuffed all the pet
supplies in the back of the trunk while the little ones slept soundly on
the passenger's lap.
 
We took seven days to drive across country, and that also went better than
expected.  I didn't want to keep the ferrets in their travel cage the whole
time, so we stuffed blankets around the edges of the seats to create a
"wall" between the front and back of the car.  We put leashes on the
ferrets, and the passenger sat in the back seat with them to make sure they
stayed out of mischief.  For the most part they did a good job of sleeping
during the drive and playing at the rest stops.  For lodging, we found it
easiest to stay at Motel 6's.  They are generally cheap, clean, and easy
to spot from the highway.  Best of all, they all accept pets for no extra
charge.  The only scary event during the trip was when one of our guys got
a tic while playing at a rest area.  We were in Oklahoma in the middle of
hurricane season, and we had to swab alcohol on the tic while a beating
rain storm started up all around us.  Fortunately, the ferret suffered no
ill effects from the tic bite; he was simply annoyed at us for swabbing
this awful smelling stuff on his back.
 
Dooks to all,
Julie and the anonyferrets
[Posted in FML issue 2727]