FLO Super Secret Dispatch: We have secured access to the ferret commando
team known to us as Whitey, Crazy, and Stump from the Litwicki Prison camp.
Unfortunately, the Prison Matron retrieved them.  We are still in contact
and plan to rescue them again.  In the meantime, they plan to try their best
to return the carpet to its original state of soilage.  The FLO can claim a
victory in that the Martian Carpet Torture machine was unable to remove FLO
markings from the floor, although they are no longer detectable to the human
nose.
 
(Actually, it was Friday, Noodle and Easel.  That Easel is such a cutey, I'm
thinking of starting a fan club for her.  My husband didn't want to send her
home!)
 
The truth about ferrets: I agree that we can't sugar coat the ferret
tendency to occasionally lose it and do damage, but we have to keep it in
perspective, too.  Ferrets are not a good pet for every family, and people
should have all the information they need to make that decision before they
buy one.  We were at the pet store the other day and a mother with two small
children were looking at the kits (the smallest I've ever seen in a pet
store).  She was asking the saleslady how much they were, and asked if they
had personalities like cats.  The saleslady said "Yes," and went back to
cooing over my dog.  I quickly jumped in and said, "They are not good pets
for children that age," pointing at her toddler.  Then my husband went back
to look at the babies and ended up giving the whole family a lecture on
ferrets that included some of the advantages and disadvantages of keeping
them as pets.  Sadly, we cannot patrol pet stores all the time.
 
Litterboxes: Mortimer is 100% littertrained.  His ferret mommy taught him.
Sebastian is okay, but I goofed when he was a baby.  I paper trained him,
and now we have trouble getting him to use a box so we have to provide boxes
and paper.  He will still use any convenient corner if I let him.  Mithril
is better than Sebastian but not as good as Morty.  I think the more ferrets
you have, the harder it is to enforce litter training and Bob Church has 346
of them.  According to his daughter, they poop in his hair.  (Okay, so the
story gets mangled in retelling.  So sue me!)
 
Mace: If you feel it necessary to carry something in the park to protect
your fuzzbutts from dogs, please use pepper spray.  Someone on my mastiff
mailing list lost a dog to mace.  It caused a respiratory infection which
turned into pneumonia.  Pepper spray is non toxic and not as irritating to
the dog as it is to people (but it will stop the dog).  Also please don't
get trigger happy if you're carrying the stuff.  :) I think dogs in public
parks should be leashed, but a lot of dog owners don't think so.  Whenever
we take the ferrets to the park, we take no more than two and stay pretty
close to them for this reason.  Those free-running dogs give me the creeps.
(FWIW, the mastiff who was maced didn't do anything but run to check out the
meter reader who walked into the backyard without knocking at the front door
first.)
 
-Catherine
[Posted in FML issue 1917]