Hi Ya Fertfolks!
 
Good to get a chance to drop you all a post today, know it's bin a long
while since we has!  Short'n to da point, I've been battlin with severe
Hypothyroid Disease, (it makes ya sleep too much, amongst other things),
<yawn zzzzz. . . huh what day is?  Too incredible!  ;o( > Thing is ya
just don't get very much done in yer sleep, and I'm only awake 'bout 4hrs
out of every 24 these days.  Just enough time for pet-lovin, eats, baths,
the bills, a tad of work, and an occasional lurk or letter!  It is
actually, improved already from considerably worse, I was sleepin days at
a time!  <if you can imagine, ya go for a nap, and wake up 48-54 hrs
later!:o(> Thankfully, initial stages are shortlived, so it gets better
from here, and we're <pretty much> awake now so we figured we'd send a hi
yer way, and comment on a couple of recent posts.  <Oh and BTW, the funny
thing is that, since he's always slept 20 hrs a day, Ferris hasn't even
noticed that life at our house is topsy turvy and completely changed!;o)>
 
Anyways, we wanted to offer a couple suggestions in response here:
 
>Subject: ferret room (the tedious job of ferretproofing)
>I could however, give it a nice big room to play in, HOWEVER...i do
>have a death trap...(guessed already?... yup..  recliner.....(everyone
>can stop gasping now!).
 
The GASP is aptly justified, recliners can very much be death traps!
 
>It's not something we can simply get rid of.
 
I'm sorry if this is intrusive in inquiring, BUT exactly why not??  Have
you a personal "attachment" to the chair,i.e. a gift, or bequest?  Perhaps
if not, you might consider the possibility of "swaping" it for some other
safe chair, or simply selling it and reinvesting the money in another
chair.  For us here, no chair would be worth enough to take the chance that
Ferris would be in danger of either suffering, or death.  The reason that
vigilant "Ferretproofing" is stressed by fertfolks so much lies in the
absolutely devastating results of "failing to do so".  It is without doubt
an unfair sentence of suffering to a ferret not to do it.
 
>But I have heard of preventative actions so that he wont be harmed by
>it.  One suggestion was to get a big canvas bag and put it over the
>recliner and tie it shut so the mechanism is not accessable at all.
 
I seriously doubt this would work.  It would certainly need to be made of
a very strong material, any regular canvas wouldn't stand a chance with
Ferris's digging fer sure I know, and unless you are going to "enclose" the
"foot stool portion" in the bag too so that the chair can no longer open at
all, and tie it up on the "underside", with all the "bottom" of the chair
flat against the floor, so there is no "underspace", then it's simply NOT
FERTPROOF.
 
As for Darren's case in particular, believe me if it's a choice between a
"boring" room and a "deadly" room, the ferret would rather be bored!
However, if you supply a house, pan, food and toys I doubt it will be!
 
>Subject: my fuzzies
>Another question,does anyone have any ideas on how to keep the fuzzies
>cool? I live in New York and this high humidity and 80+ temperatures
>are making Bandit very cranky.
 
Got a couple ideas for ya on this one . . . ;o)
First, everyone, and fuzzies too, likes ta go for a dip on a hot day!  If
you supply a 4-5inch deep, plastic dishpan or wash basin type container
half filled with "TEPID" water (DON'T USE COLD WATER, the drastic temp.
change is not required to refresh, and it may cause health problems).  Be
sure you also supply clean drying material too,i.e. beachtowels/blanket.
Also, DON'T USE A FAN IN THE ROOM WHILE FUR IS WET, draught is bad.
 
And second, if you have a small "cloth" sack or two which can be totally
secured shut, you can fill the "freezer size" ziplock type plastic bags
with ice cubes, be sure you close them tight so the melt water dosen't
leak out though, and then stuff the bag of ice into the cloth bag and do
it up securly too so the fert can't get in and at the bag of ice inside,
then take and place the fert, or ferts, with the bag into a larger open
cardboard box.  As the fert checks out the cool bag it gets cool too!  BUT
DON'T LEAVE THE FERT TO PLAY WITH THE BAG FOR TOO LONG EACH TIME, it can
end up getting too chilled out as it plays with the bag.
 
And lastly, just a general tip, plain cotten sheets to sleep in are nice
and cool during hot weather too.  We get old ones from the thrift shop.
 
And just before we sign off for this time . . .
 
>From: Mickey Rene -Needless to say, I put on the puppy eyes for them
 
Don't ya mean ya put on your FERT KIT EYES ! ;o)
 
Well we do have to bid you all adieu for now, keep on dooking!
 
Ferris "Look into my eyes, you are in my control, get raisins now!"
 
and his mom
Deba "Yes, Get Raisins . . .   yawn zzzzzzzzzz"
[Posted in FML issue 2374]