>MAX I SHOULD HAVE KNOWN IT WAS YOU! Ah yes, Max-Man the wonder trouble maker :-) I still remember staying at Pat's with her ferrets while she was out of town (actually, she was on her way to Georgia, where we lost her and you found her!) ... I put the ferrets to bed on the balconey, went to sleep myself, and woke up a few hours later with a Max sitting on my chest, watching me sleep. I screamed - Max had a reputation at the time as a feaster on human flesh - Max bolted, and it took me 1/2 an hour to catch him (cuz now he was scared of me and thought eating me was the best way to go about getting rid of me). The little rug rat had chewed a hole in the window screen and, Tarzan-like, swung himself up onto the window ledge to wake a sleeping ferret-sitter. I've never forgiven him for that. >As an aside, I've often wondered what Sheena Staples uses as a harness for >her monster-fat ferret, Milo. Is it a cat harness, or a little doggy >harness, Sheena? ;) Sheena has God's biggest ferret, and I've got God's >cutest ferrets. :-) Well, if you've got God's cutest ferrets, what's He doing at the Heavenly Ferret Frolics and Shows?? Milo, AKA Big Fat, wears a cat harness stretched to its absolute limits. If (or when, rather) he gains his winter weight, we'll have to move onto the border collie's agility harness :-) Or else we could not bother putting one on him at all, since he refuses to walk in the great outdoors anyway. >Subject: dogs-n-ferts Speaking of border collies ... our BC Abi *adores* the ferrets. She carries them around and taunts them with her toys (this means putting a favourite toy down in front of a ferret and then snatching it away before the ferret can) which often earns her a bite on the lip, or - if it's been a particularly active evening and she's panting - on the tongue. In these cases she runs to her mum to "please-remove-the-furry-weight-attached-to-my-tongue." It's a sight to see. She, too, was raised with the ferrets from 6 weeks. On the other hand, a friend of mine has a big black lab that she got about the same time we got our BC. He cannot be trusted around the ferrets. He nips at them, chases them, pounces on them - of course, it's all in fun, but he's such a big clumsy oaf that he could really damage them with a single paw swat. It really depends on the dog's training (lots of it and consistently) and instilling in the dog at an early age that it's okay for the ferrets to bite him, but not for him to bite them back. We taught our BC not to bite by "yelping" whenever she layed her teeth on us. Now, when she gets ahold of a ferret we just yelp "OUCH" and she lets go, looking all ashamed. Maybe we taught her a little too well, because if I bang my knee on a cage (this is a regular occurance) and yell "ouch" she hangs her head and looks guilty. For some real fun ... watch your dog try to climb through the ferret tube after a ferret, especially the flexible dryer hose that bunches up. Of course, it's equally as funny when Milo tries to crawl in there too. Sheena - [log in to unmask] |To Err is Ferret | Director - Wherret Ferrets Halfway House & Ferretry |To Forgive...well | VP - Ferret Association of Greater Vancouver |...That's Our Job!| We're on the Web! http://ww2.portal.ca/~cmc~/ferrets/fagv/ [Posted in FML issue 1734]