Living in an FFZ I haven't seen pet shop ferrets until recently.  I spent a
weekend in phoenix and we visited numerous pet shops from large "warehouse"
types to damp, smelly hole-in-the wall places.
 
In all but one store they were behind glass -- which considering that kits
bite is okay I guess.  In the big store they had a hammock and a litterbox.
There were four 8 week olds in about a thirty gallon container -- it was
mesh in the back.  They had just arrived and were fat and healthy looking.
 
In the one store they were caged there were three young kits in a big cage.
No toys, no hammock.  They were cute and active but they also looked like a
new shipment.
 
In the two other stores that I visited I felt the rescue urge.  One had two
nearly adult ferrets alone in small aquariums with litter boxes but no toys
or blankies.  One was a silver who jumped up and danced and practically
begged me to take him home.  He looked like maybe they take him out and play
with him, but if I'd had a spare 140.00 (haha) I would have scooped him up.
 
The last was the saddest.  There was one small kit.  Really tiny -- maybe
six or seven weeks.  He was a skinny, scruffy-looking sable.  He was lying
on his belly in cedar shavings, against the wall.  He wasn't asleep but his
eyes were half closed and he made no effort to look at me at all.  Poor
little baby.
 
I don't think a lot of people understand that animals of a certain level of
intelligence have to be given stimulation.  I have a friend who recently
bought a puppy.  She has NEVER owned a pet.  She thinks the puppy will stay
in the pet carrier until she wants to play with it -- like a wind up toy.
I've been puppysitting the little guy for two weeks -- she'll never forgive
what I've "taught" him.  She gave me a docile nine week old baby, I'm giving
her back a rowdy eleven week old who thinks he's a ferret.
 
Susan and the Fortunate Foursome
[Posted in FML issue 1806]