>MAX I SHOULD HAVE KNOWN IT WAS YOU!
 
Ah yes, Max-Man the wonder trouble maker :-)  I still remember staying at
Pat's with her ferrets while she was out of town (actually, she was on her
way to Georgia, where we lost her and you found her!) ... I put the ferrets
to bed on the balconey, went to sleep myself, and woke up a few hours later
with a Max sitting on my chest, watching me sleep.  I screamed - Max had a
reputation at the time as a feaster on human flesh - Max bolted, and it took
me 1/2 an hour to catch him (cuz now he was scared of me and thought eating
me was the best way to go about getting rid of me).  The little rug rat had
chewed a hole in the window screen and, Tarzan-like, swung himself up onto
the window ledge to wake a sleeping ferret-sitter.  I've never forgiven him
for that.
 
>As an aside, I've often wondered what Sheena Staples uses as a harness for
>her monster-fat ferret, Milo.  Is it a cat harness, or a little doggy
>harness, Sheena?  ;) Sheena has God's biggest ferret, and I've got God's
>cutest ferrets.  :-)
 
Well, if you've got God's cutest ferrets, what's He doing at the Heavenly
Ferret Frolics and Shows??
 
Milo, AKA Big Fat, wears a cat harness stretched to its absolute limits.  If
(or when, rather) he gains his winter weight, we'll have to move onto the
border collie's agility harness :-)  Or else we could not bother putting one
on him at all, since he refuses to walk in the great outdoors anyway.
 
>Subject: dogs-n-ferts
 
Speaking of border collies ... our BC Abi *adores* the ferrets.  She carries
them around and taunts them with her toys (this means putting a favourite toy
down in front of a ferret and then snatching it away before the ferret can)
which often earns her a bite on the lip, or - if it's been a particularly
active evening and she's panting - on the tongue.  In these cases she runs
to her mum to "please-remove-the-furry-weight-attached-to-my-tongue." It's a
sight to see.  She, too, was raised with the ferrets from 6 weeks.
 
On the other hand, a friend of mine has a big black lab that she got about
the same time we got our BC.  He cannot be trusted around the ferrets.  He
nips at them, chases them, pounces on them - of course, it's all in fun, but
he's such a big clumsy oaf that he could really damage them with a single
paw swat.
 
It really depends on the dog's training (lots of it and consistently) and
instilling in the dog at an early age that it's okay for the ferrets to bite
him, but not for him to bite them back.  We taught our BC not to bite by
"yelping" whenever she layed her teeth on us.  Now, when she gets ahold of a
ferret we just yelp "OUCH" and she lets go, looking all ashamed.  Maybe we
taught her a little too well, because if I bang my knee on a cage (this is a
regular occurance) and yell "ouch" she hangs her head and looks guilty.
 
For some real fun ... watch your dog try to climb through the ferret tube
after a ferret, especially the flexible dryer hose that bunches up.  Of
course, it's equally as funny when Milo tries to crawl in there too.
 
Sheena - [log in to unmask]                           |To Err is Ferret  |
Director - Wherret Ferrets Halfway House & Ferretry  |To Forgive...well |
VP - Ferret Association of Greater Vancouver         |...That's Our Job!|
         We're on the Web! http://ww2.portal.ca/~cmc~/ferrets/fagv/
[Posted in FML issue 1734]