Dear Ferret Folks-

I cannot say if it is a good or a bad thing health-wise for a ferret to
be very large. That is not my area of experience and I won't even try
to address it. What I *can* do is tell you a bit of what it is like to
live with a big breeder ferret if you have never done so. My Caff-Pow
came to me from DeVore's in Virginia and I love him dearly. He is a
true individual. He doesn't suck up. He isn't pretending to be anything
that he is not and compromise is not in his vocabulary. He is who he
is, never giving an inch. I had him neutered at four months because at
three and and half pounds he was already darn near everything I could
keep up with. He weighs in at a little over four pounds now, and I am
*extremely* grateful that I didn't allow him to attain his full
potential weight, which could reasonably be expected to have topped
five pounds. Four pounds of ferret is all that I can handle! More,
sometimes.

The first thing you need to do with one of the big boys is throw away
everything you have ever learned about reasonable ferret-proofing, and
start all over. Does anyone here remember that man's videos of his
apartment full of Russian Sables? I do. They caused quite a stir.
Everyone said "I WANT ONE!" and I remember thinking "Are they serious?
Look how those things *move.*" There is no place in that apartment they
couldn't reach with what I estimate as six to eight foot horizontal
leaps. Imagine actually living with a critter that can do that if it
wants to in your *house?* I can imagine it. Easily. When Caff-Pow gets
really bored he can climb the back of the refrigerator and get on top.
When I move to take him down he looks at me, says "KOWABUNGA,DUDE!" and
simply leaps onto the kitchen floor and hits the ground running. That
leap doesn't even make him go "Oof!" It is a feat that I have never
seen a Marshall's ferret attempt. Climb up there? Sure, if they had a
mind to. But just leap off and land with precision and safety? Nope.
That's all Caff-Pow.

Caff-Pow has absolutely no fear of people or fear of ticking them off.
I like to think that's because he is gently treated. He thinks it's
*fun* to leap up into a ladies skirt from underneath and hang from her
panties. Or just from the soft inside of her thigh, using his teeth and
claws. I have yet to meet any lady, including myself who thinks that
it's the least bit funny. I don't wear many skirts, but he has sent me
shrieking across the house on more then one occasion when he decided it
would be fun to climb up the inside of my nightgown. He doesn't mean
any harm, it's just another interesting thing to climb.

I have had to put hook and eye latches on closet doors because he can
open them simply by lying down in front of them and repeatedly yanking
and clawing at the bottom of the door. It's not real good for the
veneer. He can also pry baseboard trim right off of the walls if he
wants. Nails and all. There are times when he is simply so active and
destructive that I lock him and Todd together in the bathroom for an
hour. There is not much in there 'Pow can destroy. Knock over, yes. But
not destroy. Sometimes he needs out of the cage time and I need sanity
time. Eventually he gets bored in there and falls asleep in the towels
curled up with Todd, who is only half his size.

I am extremely grateful that Caff-Pow has, all in all, a calm nature.
He has never poofed, although he is quite capable of it. Once he was
doing something particularly wretched and my husband snatched him up
from off of the floor roughly. 'Pow was scared, so he gave a little
shriek then sank his fangs into my husband's hand, right through the
nail bed, drawing blood. Don't think my husband got a speck of
sympathy. I chewed him out for scaring a small animal so badly that it
felt an instinctive need to defend itself. My husband felt awful for
what he had done, and it has never been repeated. But I have no doubt
that if 'Pow really wanted to scrap he could do some serious damage.
He plays rough just for fun, and I don't let children play with him at
all. He just wants to play, and doesn't know his own strength.

Every ferret deserves a good, loving home. I love all four pounds of my
'Pow, he brings me much more joy and laughter than frustration. But I
couldn't give a home to a ferret nearly twice his size. It is beyond
me, it would be beyond a lot of perfectly good ferret mommies. I can
well imagine a ferret the size and weight of my *cat* getting dumped
because it did too much damage to the home or hurt someone. We have
enough dumped ferrets already, I am thinking. So if you are thinking
"I gotta get a seven pound ferret!" you should ask yourself "am I
*capable* of giving an animal with that level of physicality a home? Am
I up to that kind of commitment? How would my spouse feel about that
kind of comittment?"

I bet there are days that the guy with the Russia Sables thinks "I need
a vacation from these things!" Wouldn't you? They are beautiful. And I
don't want one.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GG9tw4VCCE0

Alexandra in MA,
Acknowledging her limitations.

[Posted in FML 6886]