Hi,
 
Writing in response to the anonymous poster who asked about cats and
ferrets and whether they will ever get along.  As someone who has had
other animals and ferrets for years I figured I'd chime in with my own
experiences.  Getting any animals to deal with each other in a reasonable
manner is more a matter of the specific animals involved as opposed to
the species of animals involved.
 
For years I had rats and ferrets.  Loki and Cricket had no problems with
the rats, and would leave them completely alone, even to the point that
my boldest rat, Illyana could run around on the floor at any time when
the ferrets were out and about without concern.  This all changed when
I adopted Percival and Zoe.  Zoe is still much the hunter and all of a
sudden the two species didn't mix well anymore in my environment and I
had to change the way I let the animals out and about.
 
Now the rats and Loki and Cricket are gone, leaving only Percival and
Zoe.  About 6 months after we moved into our current residence we found
ourselves with a yr old cat who was being abandoned.  He was initially
totally freaked out by the ferret scent in the house, always slinking by
in that scared cat crouch when he had to pass by where their cage was.  At
first he seemed to have no problems with the ferrets, but then they became
*very* curious and it started to bother him.  It doesn't help that George
isn't smart enough to just vacate the area to get away from the ferrets.
Got to the point that George would start swatting at the ferrets to get
them away from him.  With Percival this worked fine, as one swat (George
was declawed, by the way) tends to convince Percival there are lots better
things to do.  Unfortunately Zoe can't take a hint, and a couple times
I've had to dive in just as George is about to grab her with his teeth
and rake with his back claws.  Not a good scene.
 
Now, the ferrets have their own play room, and the cat is not allowed in
there while the ferrets are out and about.  They just don't get alone
enough and I don't always have the time to be watching them every second,
and if I have to watch them every second they wouldn't get much time out
of the cage and that would be bad.  You may have to accept that it can be
a definite possibility that they ferrets and your cat will never really
get along.  Supervised time and attempts at training might help, but it
could take a while to get to a trustable point with the cat and the
ferrets.
 
Butch
Zoe, Percival and George the cat
[Posted in FML issue 3684]