In October 1993, I lived in a apartment in Silver Spring, MD. The postman was still filling the mailboxes and I went down to the garage to see if there was anything in my car I need to bring up. While at my car a rat ran across my foot and I shrieked like woman. I look down and there is a Sable ferret on the ground with its paws on my legs looking up at me. My friend had a ferret once so I've seen them before, but in the back of my mind I'm thinking *DANGER*, possible rabies! It looked harmless enough, and definately hungry so I picked it up and took it up to my apartment. The only food I had for it was rasins, so I left a bowlful and went to see my property manager. She told me there were two families with ferrets in the building. One was the fix-it guy, (not his), and the other lived on the top floor. The woman on the top floor got a weird look on her face which I asked if she was missing a ferret. Hers had died the week before. I showed her mine and she told me it was young and hers had been much older. (She was worried that she had thrown away a live ferret!) She lent me a ferret instruction book, and I went out and bought cat food and litter. When I got home, I found out why you don't feed ferrets a bowl full of raisins. Back to the store for club soda and vinegar, and I was set (and the stain hadn't.) I was concerned about getting the ferret back to her family until the next day. In the garage, next to the dumpster where people leave unwanted furniture that sometimes ends up in my appartment, I found a ferret cage (That also ended up in my apartment) The turds had not been cleaned out in months. The ferret was now with me and I named him Spike. Three weeks later I took him to the vet and, a la Lou Reed, now he was a she. But she is still Spike. Now I live in Colorado. I bought a baby silver-mit male at a pet store as a companion for Spike. I named him Ziggy. The vet says he'll never be more than two pounds because the pet store neutered him too young. I like my ferrets and they like me. CLIPPING NAILS WITH BRIBES. I used to put a drop of linatone/ferratone on their belly while I clipped their nails. It seemed they would allow me to amputate a leg as long as they could still lick their belly. But I didn't like the idea of always bribing them. So now we wrestle when I clip their nails, and it is getting easier, and I give them treats afterwards. If there is one secret to dealing with ferrets, it is to spend more time with them. They will reward you well. When I don't spend as much time, they miss the liter box more. But they've been so good lately, and I've been leaving them out of the cage for days at a time. CAGE BUILDING As I've mentioned earlier, I got a free cage when someone threw theirs out. Big cage, multi level, came with drainage pipe and a hammock. I want to build a large scale habitrail that connects ferret safe areas with short sections of drainage pipe. I want to build cage extension. They cage I have uses 1x2 mesh for walls and 1x1/2 mesh for the top floor. (It is all carpeted now) I can find the 1x2 in stores, but I can't find the 1x1/2 anywhere. The cage also uses 'clips' to join mesh sections. The clips are nice. They look like a half inch square rolled in a cylinder, except one end has a notch cut out from one end and attached to the other end to make a smooth cylinder. I realize this is a commercial cage, but I don't see any reason why someone couldn't make these clips commercially available. I'd buy them. BITING (Crowley Cabal) I find nothing strange about biting my ferret. They did it first. Usually I flick and shout, but once in a while when they get really ornery, I bite them hard enough to get a hiss, leave them alone for a few minutes, spit out the hairs, then go back to pet them to show I hold no grudges. Ed Belisle (Sorry, no amusing tagline.) [Posted in FML issue 1246]