Hi.  I'm very new here.  I'm writing to ask for help.  I don't know very
much about ferrets.  I've owned three over the past four years.  There were
many, many days that my ferrets provided me with the only joy in my day.
But I didn't know how quickly joy can turn to tragedy with them.  I don't
know how I got through losing them and feeling that it is my fault through
my ignorance.  I now know that I can't go through anouther loss like this
again.  But after reading your letters for a week now, I gather that I am
not alone in letting my ferrets the run of the house.  What's the secret?
 
One hot summer night while we were sleeping, my ferrets dug a hole in a
screen door and excaped.  One climbed the cinder block wall into the
neighbors back yard where their large dogs killed him.  I'll never forget
the sound that I woke to.  I never heard it before, but I knew what it was.
I found the other in the front yard.  She was unhurt.  Another time, one got
caught under our couch.  I found her the next day, crushed.
 
I have always loved animals and I have always had pets of all kinds.  I
majored in mammalogy in college.  I always thought of myself as a caring,
loving, thoughtful, intelligent pet owner.  I trained horses for twenty
years, I have four cats, a dog, a fish pond in the back yard and wild bird
feeders everywhere.  I just don't seem to be able to anticipate the next
dangerous way my ferrets will think to go.  I want so badly to have a house
full, to fill my house with the laughter they inspire, but I'm afraid.
Shoud I keep them in a cage with only short bouts lose in the house?  Should
they be confined only to a few rooms?  They do have a tendency, when I'm not
looking to find a hiding place and go to sleep, and unless I hunt them down,
I lose track of them untill they wake again.  Is it cruel to deny them their
freedom to save them from pri-mature death?
 
I'm on a very linited income and ca't afford to buy a ferret from the pet
store.  I buy them out of the newpaper from people who don't want them
anymore.  But even they are wanting to get back their "investment" these
days and are priced out of my league.  May be it's for the best.  I live in
NM and am not aware of any rescue shelters in the area.  I don't know how to
build a cage.  Should it be inside or outside?  Or maybe mobile?  How big?
If you can help me, I'll listen to all advice.
 
Thank you.
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[Posted in FML issue 1570]