Hi there!
 
Not only does Dayton like to steal potatoes, but also everyother vegtable we
buy.  She sometimes eats tomatoes, but the rest she just hides in my closet,
under the bed, in the entryway, behind the toilet and other fun places.
When she was visiting my mom and dad (my mom likes animals from far away)
she took about 25 potatoes out of a basket in the kitchen and 'threw' them
down to the basement.
 
I have proof ferrets would kill a cow and I know what part of them they
would eat first.  The stomach!!!  I work at a dairy nutrition lab and this
summer am working on an experiment where we take rumen and omasal (two
compartments of the stomach) samples.  This stuff is gross and smelly and
gets on all my clothes.  Whenever I'd come home they'd burrow through my
stinky clothes and drag them around.  Ususally they are not clothes ferrets.
So my advise is to keep your cows hidden.
 
My condolences to the lost ferrets owners, but here is (perhaps) some
encouragement.  Last spring, over finals week, my dayton escaped through my
roomates closet.  We live on the third floor.  We talked to neighbors,
called the HS, looked and looked and looked.  After 5 days I had given up.
The morning of the  sixth day and 3 hours before my last final my neighbor
told me my ferret was on the roof.  A passerby had seen her.  We called
everyone we could think of but no one could help us get her down.  We
finally went through the attic and maybe hurt a  few attic screens but got
her.  She was scared and hungry and thirsty and full of insulation but
otherwise fine.  So don't give up.
 
Nikki
[Posted in FML issue 1260]