>From: "A. C. Vitale" <[log in to unmask]> >We're thinking about expanding our family and bringing home a kitten. Do >any of you have experience mixing ferrets & kittens? Any words of advice >and/or caution? Health risks for either? Will a female kitten get along >better with a female ferret? Or should I mix? Any words of wisdom from >you seasoned FML'ers will be more than welcome. Thanks!! As far as I know, the gender of the animals won't matter. It's more to do with personalities. I originally had one cat and several ferrets. That cat was already an adult when I got her and she didn't like to play with the ferrets, so she sat up high to watch them. Then I got a kitten. The kitten was male but I'm not sure that had much to do with him liking the ferrets. He thought they were great fun. He would chase them and wrestle with them, and even go in their cage. Of course he also chased my female cat, who is basically a wimp. Nice, but a wimp. It's only in the past year that she finally decided enough was enough and began to get into the spirit of play-fighting. I used to tell her "you know, 'turn the other cheek' doesn't apply to you. Bite him really hard and he'll learn he can't just bully you whenever he wants to." She can beat him up now if she feels he needs it (he often does :-) even though he now outweighs her by a couple pounds. And she will now let ferrets crawl on her when she's on the futon, until they get too "personal" at which point she takes off and gets up on the kitchen table or something. The ferrets can also beat up the cat. One of my females is under two pounds yet. She figured out within 10 minutes of meeting the cat that she could make him run. She goes for the toes. My only advice for getting a kitten is get one that's a little older, not just weaned. My cat was 9-10 weeks old when I got him. And if you can observe several kittens and their personalities, pick one that is a little bolder and doesn't mind getting into a tumble with the other kittens. Karen [log in to unmask] =================================================== Come and fill my heart with hope Come and fill my life with love Come and fill my soul with strength to carry on because from here the climb is steep, the road is long Come and fill my days with dreams Empty me of all the empty things that I hold on to Come and fill my heart with You. -- Avalon =================================================== If you love ferrets, check out: http://www.ferretwise.org =================================================== [Posted in FML issue 3777]