Hi All!
I was reading the posts about the ferret attacks, and just thought I'd add
a few more scents worth.  We have four ferrety little monsters, and an
eight month old daughter, who is in to everything.  We also have three
dogs.  Our dogs are friendly and all, but we have never let any of them
around our daughter.  I'm not really worried that they would bite, but
I have known too many otherwise friendly dogs who have at one time or
another bitten small children, so I figure that its better to be safe than
sorry!  After all, if something were to happen, it would be no one's fault
but my own for allowing the situation to take place.  Now our ferrets,
on the other hand, are a different story.  We kept the ferrets away from
the baby in the beginning, but as time went by the little monsters got
increasingly sneaky!  I would catch Hannibal sleeping next to her, all
curled up and cozy.  I would scold him and put him out of the room because
I didn't want to encourage the behavior,no matter how adorible it was but
somehow he would always manage to get back into the room, and there he
would be, cozily snuggled up next to her, snoozing away as if he hadn't a
care in the world!  Sneaky, sneaky little monster!  Taz and U.V. liked to
peer over the side of the car seat and just look at her.  Then they would
dance around the car seat and sneak another peek over the side.  When she
cried, they would stop whatever they were doing, (even if it was sleeping)
and come running over to look at her as if they were worried about her or
something.  It was really strange!  As she has gotten older,they take a
much greater interest in her.  They just think she is the neatest thing.
Once she started crawling, that was it.  She follows them around the
living room, and they play all around her, dancing and pouncing each
other.  When it is time to eat, she is thier best friend.  They love baby
food, and she will drop it on the floor and then squeal with delight as
she watches them eat it.  They have never tried to bite her, actually
they have never been anything but gentile with her.  We never leave them
unsupervised with her of course, and we don't let her grab them, or
anything like that.A funny thing though, they will pounce my neice and my
nephew, who are 6 and 8, but they don't pounce Bethany.  They just play
around her as if they are putting on a show for her or something.  All
in all, it has worked out really well for us.  There have been a few
problems, but nothing major.  For example, Hannibal loves her socks and he
will steal them if he finds them laying around.  Tazz and U.V. think that
the pacifier is a great toy and they will steal it, if they find it laying
around.  And all three of them love her unused diapers and will steal them
to sleep on, but they want nothing to do with the dirty diapers!  Go
figure.
 
We do keep Socks, our fourth ferret, separate from the baby though.  He's
a sweety, but when he gets excited, he will do the play nip,which hurts a
little, and he's tried to steal my hands and run off with them to his
hidey-hole, so we figure its best to keep him and Bethany separate to be
on the safe side.  He loves to play with my neice and nephew though, and
there have never been any problems.
 
But all in all, I have to say that while I love my dogs dearly, I would
definately trust my ferrets around children more!  Hmmmmm........perhaps
I just got vey lucky!  :-)
 
Von and The Merry Monsters
[Posted in FML issue 3668]