Hi all . . .
 
Whew.  I was glad to see someone disagree with me about the
friendliness/education happening at the Midwest Pet Expo.  Perhaps I was
just there at a bad time of day.  Nice to know that others *did* see ferret
education happening--it would be too bad if my experience was indicative of
everyone else's.
 
Anway ... I forgot to relay a funny story: After the long weekend we went to
pick up our fert boys from the sitter (who has two fert girls and all had a
wonderful time).  They all had supervised play time in the whole house (3
stories) except the laundry room.  Well.  The cats' litterbox is in the
laundry room, and while we were there watching the ferrets zoom all over the
house, one of the the cats REALLY had to go potty.  So he scrunched himself
into the ferret cage and proceeded to take a very awkward position in the
litter box.  When he was done there was a teeny-tiny little wet spot in the
box.  Too funny!  I think my boys were sad to come home.  I also think they
found cats to be much more fun to play with than my dog--less threatening,
maybe, because my dog growls and really sounds scary, and besides that when
she pins them down she means business, 40 lbs of business.
 
To cage or not to cage: Personal preference, I'd say, but having experienced
both, I prefer to cage the boys when at night and when I'm not home.  #1, I
know better than to ever completely trust the dog 100%.  She's a pit/lab and
has very strong jaws, tho' she *seems* to have a very high tolerance of
ferrets.  But she's the babysitter--when the ferrets dig at the carpet, the
dog leaps at them, growling fiercely.  When they get on the computer desk or
the kitchen table, she barks like crazy.  I don't know how far she'd go in
her form of "discipline" if I wasn't around to tell her, "Take it easy" or
"Enough!"
 
My first ferret was totally free run for about 9 months.  And when we moved,
I had all kinds of cement-like piles to scrape off the solid wood floor.
Not cool.  Also, she got drunk once on a glass of rum&coke my partner left
on the stereo.  And once she broke through the window screen at night and
escaped.  (Luckily, between the dog and the squeeky toy she was quickly
caught, but if the dog hadn't got upset how long would it have been before I
realized the ferret was gone?) Mmmm--that particular ferret also made one of
my dresser drawers her main bed.  And made all the other drawers her main
litter boxes.  I had drawers full of pee-soaked summer clothing.  Very icky.
 
When we moved, that ferret and another we acquired were free-run in the
kitchen only.  Because there was a hole in the furnace grate large enough
for them to slip through.  Again, constant litter box problems.  And they
chose the stove-drawer for a bed.  The oven didn't work, so there was no
danger . . . but WOW!  the mess I found underneath that drawer . . .
 
And finally, when my friends had to take the ferrets for awhile, Smokey went
nuts being caged and possibly that's the cause of her biting the face of my
friend's child which resulted in confiscation by animal control and the
death of both ferrets.  Very sad story, preventable with proper caging, but
since we'd never caged we didn't have a proper cage.  So Kelly devised a
"play-pen" sort of cage out of plywood and netting, and the ferret got out
in the night and bit the child's face 15 times.  The emergency room called
animal control and the rest is tragedy.  Sad for all of us.
 
Pepper came to us unexpectedly, and is a voracious carpet digger.  We rent.
Hence the original decision to cage.  Now I wouldn't do it any other way.
For one thing, our litter box hit rate is much better with Pepper and Mort
than it ever was with Smokey and Whiskey.  2nd, in case of a fire or other
emergency, the cage is right there.  Grab and go.
 
And I think Pepper and Mort are much more active and playful then my
free-run ferrets were.  Smokey and Whiskey would only get up for an hour
some days, and sleep all the rest of the time.  Pepper and Mort get 1-4
hours playtime in the morning, 1-2 hours in the afternoon if they wake up
for it, and 1-2 hours late night.  They're totally adjusted to my schedule
and their night-time play is completely voice activated--I walk in the door
at 10:15 pm, and if I talk, they're up.  If I'm quiet, they stay
alseep--silly, huh?
 
Ferrets sleep ALOT.  And I don't think they particularly care *where* they
sleep.
 
--Sheri
[Posted in FML issue 1943]