Hi folks.  Concerning the inquiry about sight in albinos our previous vet
stated that albinos typically have poorer sight.  She sounded like this
occured across species.  I'm not sure about sun sensitivity, but we do try
to monitor our albino guy when we're outside for just such a thing.
 
The post about whether to bring the stray cat indoors with ferrets and the
replies got me to chuckling about our choices.  We have three primarily
indoor cats who would go psycho without their periodic outdoor romps, and
three ferrets.  Our pets actually figure quite prominently in our house
buying decisions!  Some safe space for them outside, very little traffic and
slow at that, no corner houses (too much street) or nearby intersections,
etc.  No major "holes" inside that can't be safely plugged and so on.  Any
house that doesn't meet these criteria is not considered no matter how
nice.  Of course, they are not entirely pleased right now because we
recently moved into a smaller place and they all resent not having as much
room to explore or as many spaces to call their own.  They actually get
bored a little quicker.  Sigh.  Well, they'll have to start earning some
money so they can pitch in on the next house!
 
The same holds true for appliances.  We got to purchase a new fridge and
dishwasher a couple of years ago and amazingly the first thing we looked
for was ferret safety.  Were they flush to the floor?  Was the back
entirely sealed?  No holes for them to crawl into.  We only considered the
ones that were safe.  Surprisingly several good models were acceptable.  It
cracks me up to realize how much priority influence the pets have over
these other areas of our life.  And we even see benefits from these
considerations show up in our life quality and safety.  We have a baby on
the way and we find we're a little ahead of the game in childproofing
because of all the ferret-proofing!
 
They permeate our lives!
Shelly
(SC Ellis-Blackwell)
[log in to unmask]
[Posted in FML issue 2419]