First, congratulations to Aileen for finding a nice ferret-friendly apartment. My SO and I have been hunting for quite a while for a place that's attractive, roomy, has a convenient location, and will allow ferrets. We now have an application in for a "perfect place" and hope to hear today or tomorrow, so please wish us luck. I've been wondering about the legal ramifications of rental corporations and managers allowing some pets and not others. For instance, why are cats OK but ferrets not? Not that I don't love cats (I'm just allergic to them), but I did have cats when I was younger, and they could be very destructive to carpets and furnishings. My ferrets have never created the havoc the cats did. The turn-downs I got while checking out rental housing that had "Pets OK" or "Pets Negotiable" ads seemed based on rumor and ignorance...no one who turned me down had ever actually met a ferret. After awhile, I started calling places in non-office hours so I could give an uninterrupted spiel to the answering machine. I said I'd run into "discrimination" (buzz word) because of having ferrets, then went on to say that my ferrets are non-destructive compared to many other animals (and children), quiet, gentle, and are caged when unsupervised. I said anyone who doubted me was welcome to visit my current house where they'd lived for four years and give it an inspection. I got a lot more positive responses after that, and only hope the place we're most interested in accepts our application. It seems to me that there should be some legal recourse for ferret-owners. For now, though, I'm planning to send fact-sheets to the places that turned me down after publishing ads that said "pets welcome." Does someone know of a ferret website that has an informative publication for rental people? I don't want to get into arguing or threatening, just educating. Signe [Posted in FML issue 2804]