>Okay, the great question "How to ferretproof a laundryroom" has appeared, >and I would like to suggest a few things. >If at all possible, keep the ferrets completely out of the laundry room. >This is the easiest. Agreed. One thing that I haven't seen mentioned yet though, is being so very extremely extraordinarily careful about not laundering your ferrets! One of our club members dryed one of their ferrets and it was both a horrifying and painful death for the little critter. Recently the same happened to another member's kitten. Ferrets *will* climb into a warm dryer for a nap, and remember how deeply they sleep -- if you aren't on the lookout for them, you might never know they're in there. And washing machines are full of little places that easily catch and injure little ferret feet (aside from the infinitely worse scenario of drowning them in the wash). So keeping them out of the laundry room really is the best option. >Sheena shows cats so she'll have more to say on that. I think what I like best about ferret shows is everyone is *so* friendly with one another. At cat shows, we have always found everyone extremely competitive. Even the "Household Pet" people get all snooty and give each other the evil eye. And if you're looking for rough handling of the animals at a show, ask me -- one judge banged our Icky's head no less than 4 times, *hard* trying to get her back in the show cage in the ring. No wonder the cat's a bit "touched" in the head. There are no requests for proof of vaccinations, nor are there health checks at Canadian cat shows. Icky came home with a respiratory infection from the last one. We've been to large ones (that means about 100 exhibitors) and small ones (that's about 30), so size varies a great deal. For some reason the small shows always end up on the big halls and vice versa. Finally, the great joy of ferret shows is the emphasis on *quality* and temperment -- ferret shows encourage positive ferret attributes, like health, size, condition etc etc. One breeder I met at our last show said she was getting out of breeding; in her particular breed, the standards encouraged short, flat faces -- so flat, this breeder told me, that two "show quality" cats she had purchased from another breeder had to be hand fed from a spoon because they were so deformed they couldn't eat out of a dish without drowning in the food being forced up their nostrils. Both cats were considered "perfect examples of their breed" by the judges, and one took home a Best of Breed ribbon. Recently a friend of mine (ferret breeder) bought 5 kits and the parents from some back yard breeder. Cost her a pretty penny too. She did it because 4 of the 5 kits had drastic underbites -- their lower "canines" shot right up into their noses -- and she didn't want to risk the line being bred again. She had the whole family altered and with her they remain still. To me, this is one of the great things about the ferret world. Most breeders I know also do rescue work, and also work hard to preserve the integrity of their breeding stock. Ferret shows are both acknowledgement of their hard work, as well as being a place where the public gets a good idea of what a quality, well loved ferret is. Shelters who want spectators to get a peek at the sadder side of the ferret population explosion should do one fo two things: run a table themselves (or get volunteers to do it) and inform the public about rescued ferrets, or encourage people who've adopted ferrets from them to enter them in the shows and show how great a rescued ferret can be too. It's a win-win situation all around, isn't it? Sheena - [log in to unmask] | "To Err is Ferret ... To Forgive| VP - Ferret Association | "... Well, That's Our Job" | of Greater Vancouver (Wherret Web Pages Coming Soon!) We're on the Web! http://www2.portal.ca/~cmc/ferrets/fagv/ [Posted in FML issue 1797]