Just wanted to update everyone on the puppy and ferret situation at my
house.  I got quite a few great messages full of good advice when I first
posted to the list for help with my new puppy, who was chasing the ferrets
and making life miserable for them.
 
The puppy is now eleven weeks old and probably weighs 30 pounds; he's big
enough to leap up onto our bed by himself, already.  He's half Irish
Wolfhound and half Rotweiller.
 
He is now getting along much better with the ferrets.  At first I was
trying to keep him in one room and them in another, with a babygate in
between so they could still see each other and sniff at one another.  Then,
the ferrets started climbing over the gate to get to him.  So I put up
two baby gates, one above the other, to cover the whole door.  Then they
started going THROUGH the baby gate, through the wires (I swear ferts can
sort of fold up like a telescope to get through the tiniest openings...).
Eventually, I gave up on the gates and just started playing with Merlin
(the puppy) really hard and getting him all tired out before letting the
ferrets out.  That works well.  He still chases them if he's not worn out
enough, though not as bad as he did in the beginning at all.  But if he is
properly tired out, he sleeps while they take turns leaping over him like
an obstacle.  Also, I sometimes lock him out in the back yard while they
run.  So things have worked out just fine.
 
Besides, Pandora the evil ankle-nipping pet-bullying fert finally got over
her uncharacteristic shyness around Merlin and has let him have 'it' (her
teeth, that is) on his tender nose a time or two, and that has helped cure
him, too.
 
I still don't let Merlin anywhere near Moogie or Diva, however.  They
exercise in a completely different, isolated area from him.  Diva is blind,
slow, and cautious, and Moogie thinks he is SuperFerret but actually is
insulinomic and adrenal, and gets around way too slowly to ever run away
from a Mad Dog like Mer-mer.  By the by, I don't think Moogie's slowness
and funny gait are entirely due to his disease; I think he suffered
malnutrition as a young ferret and resulting poor bone growth (we believe
he was raised on dog food, and not enough at that), and possibly poor
breeding as well.  Now I'm working on getting the ferrets and a new kitten
adjusted to one another!  The kitten is six weeks old and smaller than the
ferrets.  They've only interacted once, and so far so good.  I'm being very
careful with them together.  My hope is for them all to eventually be a
happy group of ferrets-- just some a lot bigger and kind of funny looking.
 
The clan now consists of three adult humans, one small human, five ferrets,
three cats, and two dogs.  Yes, I am a glutton for punishment!
 
Have a happy day, everyone!
vickie
[Posted in FML issue 2689]