I had a conversation with one of the owners of a chain of pet stores last
week concerning his thoughts on housing ferrets and merchandizing them to
best advantage.  We were talking about the undesirability (IMO) of wood
chips and aquariums due to the stagnant air and dust.  He mentioned that of
equal importance to him was the possibility of disease transmitted from the
public through a wire cage, of drafts that could come through in the
wintertime, and of the possibility of someone putting their hands in and
getting bitten or scratched.  Interesting thoughts.  I'd be interested to
hear some comments around what would be an ideal environment for ferrets in
a pet store, assuming that the ferrets are otherwise well cared for, kept
clean, and fed properly.
 
Mark Zmyewski asked about a company called "The United Ferret Organization"
in Assonet, Mass.  (You can see I'm catching up, it WAS a while ago).  That
would be primarily a gentleman named Bruce White.  Bruce has a license from
the state to operate one of the very few (some would say only) ferret
shelters in the state, and has had it for a very long time.  He runs a high
quality graphic arts/printing business and also sells (or used to sell)
ferret toys and such.  He also was somewhat involved in the legalization
effort in previous years, chiefly by means of his (UFO) newsletter, but told
me early last year that he was unable to put any time in to help the Mass
Friends group.  Several of us have tried to contact him with varying amounts
of success, and have also discovered that he does use e-mail from time to
time, don't know if he is on the FML, but I rather doubt it.  He is in
contact with Marshall Farms and also Path Valley (perhaps others ??) and
they apparently are sending out his UFO cards with their ferrets.  Bruce
does not sell ferrets, but I understand that he owns quite a few.
 
To Brian Vinacco.  How did your show go?  Ferrets are not yet legal in Mass,
though they will be on March 7th.  A bigger problem is the large number of
people (including some animal control officers) who don't yet know what a
ferret is.  We ARE working on that.  :-)
 
To Denis & Edith Dubois.  What a terrific little gal slinky must have been.
I like to ski myself and have often thought about the possibility of taking
Squeekers along.  He does go in my jacket during a walk each morning, but
had not yet figured out how to get him out on the slopes, especially in a
FFZ.  He also is a bit of a sissy when it comes to cold weather or snow.
Peaches is much braver and playful, but doesn't like to sit still long at
all.
 
Re sleeping with Ferrets.  Both of ours regularly climb into bed with use,
but also startle very easily and are out of there in a flash, sometimes for
no apparent reason.  A friend of ours did kill a kitten by rolling over on
it at night though.  He found it under him the next morning :-( We encourage
both critters to sleep between the blanket and sheet.  Jack the cat often
sleepson top of the blanket at the end of the bed, at the same time.  What a
crew we all are !!!
[Posted in FML issue 1489]