Michaela and FMLers:
 
Without air conditioning the only safe way to travel with your ferrets is to
do your travelling at night or during storms.  It is actually safer for you
to travel at night anyway (in my opinion) as there is less traffic.  I
always do my long trips late at night.  You lose out on some scenery, but if
you're really concerned about the ferrets, it's the only way to go.  Sleep
during the hottest hours in motels and drive in the cooler hours.
 
Even if you were to have a passenger in your car continually rubbing the
ferret down with a cool water washcloth, it's not safe.  I tried that last
weekend, I had to travel during the day for an emergency trip three hours
away.  Keeping the ferret cool wasn't easy, but then disaster struck.  It
was a Sunday afternoon, and we never thought this would happen, but we got
caught in a major traffic jam, we sat, moving no more than two miles an
hour, in deadly heat, for 50 minutes!  The ferret was panting and stressing,
and the water just didn't help (the coats on ferrets are *very* thick, so
even if you drench their coat the skin doesn't cool.  The only thing we
could do was take him out of his carrier and he laid on my lap, I turned on
the car's fan (the a/c doesn't work very well, but it cooled a little bit).
It kept him alive, but I tell you I was freaking out.  There was *nowhere* I
could have gone, it was on a major highway, no shops or anything that I
could have turned into.  I actually had thoughts of getting out of my car
and knocking on the windows of other cars to see if they had air
conditioning.
 
I wish you luck, and urge you to consider travelling only at night.  It's
really the only safe way you can do it.
 
Kymberlie Becker
Director, Pennsylvania Ferret Rescue Association
"Forget Puppy Love...There's nothing Greater than Ferret Love!" TM
http://home.sprynet.com/sprynet/ferretlady
[Posted in FML issue 2009]