Hi folks,
 
I'm back in Providence and online after a lovely, too-short month of August
with my fiance and ferrets in NYC... I've got a year left at college, so it's
a long distance thing for now. Sigh. I miss them all.
 
We had an eventful month. We moved, and the ferrets adore the new place. They
are now in the kitchen and bathroom as opposed to the bedroom, and they are
thrilled to be in the mainstream of things in the apartment. They think the
refrigerator is God (and we are very careful to check where they are before
closing it). They'll stand up on their hind feet to let the cool air waft
over them (summer in NYC's pretty humid, and while we give them a cool pan of
water, dunk them in the sink and have the fan on periodically, nothing beats
that fridge draft when it's open). Amazingly, they haven't gotten through any
of our ferret-proofing yet!
 
The new place is near a park, which we are thrilled about; no need to use
public transit to walk 'em someplace green. And it's roomy.
 
Re: Litter training - we also had a problem with them using a litter pan.
Too high maybe? When they did use it, the litter went all over the floor.
Or they managed to get the wall in the far corner. Sigh. After much hassle,
we simply left newspapers where we want them to go, and yell when they miss.
We change the papers daily, and it is easy to clean the tile floor underneath
(in the bathroom). Best of all, no residual allergies... there's much less in
a kitchen and bathroom than a bedroom for dander to cling to. We've also tried
what someone on here suggested a while back, dunking their back feet in cold
water, when they miss - seems to work. Mostly they do use the newspapers.
Wednesday and I had a small war over one corner shelf she wanted as a toilet
area. I cleaned it carefully and put lots of metal cans of food there after
the first time, and she methodically shoved each can one by one away from HER
corner and pooped again. Now we have a cinderblock there. She's been known to
shove those too, but I doubt she'll have much leverage in this instance.
 
Oh, speaking of Wednesday - yeah, we got a little surprise from the vet too.
Turns out she's male. (And I still can't remember, after over 1 1/2 years, to
call her a he). My fiance's brother suggests we change the name to Pugsley. No
thanks... The vet, Dr. Rosenthal at the Animal Med Center in NYC, was great,
and showed us something amazing - if you lift ferrets off their feet by the
napes of their necks, they go into something like a trance - their whole body
just *relaxes* and you can do things like give them a needle shot or clip their
nails. I don't know how long it's good to hold them like that - anyone know?
They're semi-conscious or something, at least - the vet shoved a dropper of
nutrical in their mouths before doing it and they continued to suck while in
trance. But they hardly even moved when the syringe went in, which is quite a
comparison to the contortions Wednesday went through last time with the vet
here. Three pairs of hands holding the rascal down wasn't enough. Once you stop
holding them like that, they snap out of it instantly.
 
Unfortunately, Roddenberry is getting old. Not in pain, but past the 5 1/2
year mark and slowing a lot. We're talking about what to do when he goes :(
Where is the nearest ferret shelter to NYC? (Driving a few hours if necessary
is okay). Wednesday definitely needs a constant companion.
 
My fiance, Manny, asked me to ask y'all two questions. One, what's safe to
use as roach-repellent? We used boric acid, sprays and combat disks before,
but with the ferrets in the kitchen we need to think about safety now. Any
ideas?
 
Two, do ferrets use their waste as territorial markers? We've sometimes
wondered whether one is reluctant to use a litter area that the other has
used for this reason.
 
Thanks a lot... and good luck to Barb with Keesa!
 
Geri, Manny, Wednesday and Roddenberry
 
[Posted in FML issue 0570]