HEllo guys --

Once again, as Sukie observed, we FMLers are having similar
experiences, all over the earth.

Maybe you remember that I have a huge dog named Dante? A
Husky/Golden/G-Shepherd mix. When I got him he was 3 months old and
verrry interested in the ferrets. So I introduced them very gradually,
and always at hand and up close.

Dante got the picture, and learned to be very careful. He would walk
among them so slowly and carefully that a friend characterized it
as "like a ballet dancer." as a friend observed. Dante grew bigger
and bigger. Now he's over 100 lbs.

Dante had a special relationship with little Ada, and on her occasional
escapes I'd tell Dante to go find her, and would follow him as he
looked about -- sometimes locating her.

He likes to put his enormous foot down on them -- and on the cats and
hold them in place. As you can imagine I did not like this at all. But
tehe ferts never objected. So one day I picked up that foot and saw how
lightly Dante was holding down the fert. So I have grown to like to see
the game. Still it does make the hair rise on the back of my neck.

So back to Ada -- one winter day I sent D after A, but got distracted
by something. A few minutes later I found D out on the back porch
holding Ada w his foot.

We now have another dog -- Mulu the street dog. She has learnd to not
chase the cats -- even when Hima makes a big fuss on seeing her and
runs away. On the other hand, we still do not trust Mulu, and she
isn't allowed in the house, which gives the cats a place to be w/o her
around.

Well, perhaps you remember me telling how Mulu responds to seeing the
ferrets run overhead in their wire-mesh tunnels? It's actaually
happened only a few times, BUT... She stands on her hind legs and jumps
w excitement. There's no chance of her reaching them 6' up, but she
tries.

Day before yseterday, she got a little bit closer. Jonas was going up
the wire-mesh ramp tunnel inside their outdoor pen, and she was outside
the pen watching. She began to dance and snapped at the wire. Dante saw
her doing that, grabbed her on the back of the neck, shook her, and
pushed her to the ground.

Dante did something similar to Mulu the first time she chased Raoul
(she has chased him twice) -- he headed her off and got between her
and Raoul.

So Dante loves the ferrets, and is a protector. Mulu loves them too,
but not exactly acceptably...

Now, on to Raoul and his story with ferrets -- I got him from a shelter
when he was abt 6 weeks old and -- poor little fellow -- already
neutered.

The reigning (and only) cat, Andy, would have nothing to do with Raoul
for a while, and dogs were afriad of Raoul, recognizing him as a CAT --
and therefore as dangerous as Andy (who almost always greeted a new dog
on the scene by riding on their backs, all claws apparently dug in, or
by giving then a hell of an open-clawed swat between the eyes. Once his
dominance was established, he left them alone, but of course they were
generally wary of him.

Andy met his end last summer, in Calif, tangling either with some new
dogs in the area or with an ailing mountain lion that was hanging
around. I was so sad-- Andy was an extraordinary animal. Some other
day I'll tell more of his tales than his terrorizing the dogs.

The second night after he disappeared, I was at my computer near a
window, w Raoul on my lap. There was a lot of barking -- later I
realized the dogs were probably dogs barking at the mountain lion.
Raoul tensed up. In an inspiration I asked "Is that what happend to
Andy?" Raoul crouched down fast, and his eyes were wide.

But back to infant Raoul's first nights with me -- he slept with big
sweet ferret Artie in the drawer under the oven.

It sounds like a complete accident with poor Allis -- what a sad thing
to happen. Dear Ping is He -- I loved hearing tales of him.

I think we have to find a new home for Mulu -- I had thought we could
train her w the ferts as with the cats, but I am entirely unsure.

Do any of you have experiences, positive or negative, with training a
potentially (!) problem dog to respect ferrets?

[Posted in FML 6088]