Andy Dingley wrote in message
...
On Wed, 15 Jun 2005 00:21:35 +0100, "Dave Baker"
wrote:

Oh, one of the 3 litre ones struck me as just the right size for a
miniature
litter tray for the ferret's cage

Great ! And you can keep the lid on too.

All I have to do now is train the
little sod to poop in it instead of next to it which appears to be her
preference.

Baking trays (or so I'm told). Fur-rats won't crap in anything with a
raised lip around it, they don't want to have to climb in.


(I'm not a ferret fancier - but nearby friends are, and I sometimes get
the job of sitting them).

I'd never contemplated having one myself either and knew nothing at all
about them. It's been cats only in my house for many years. I came across
her sitting in the middle of a main road at about 4am about 20 miles from
home on the way back from a trip about 4 weeks ago. Luckily the headlights
picked her up in time because she didn't move an inch even when I pulled
over and parked next to her to see what it was. Turned out to be a tiny
female ferret very much in season (vulva the size of a door stop) and
probably no more than a few months old. She's 20% heavier now than when I
first found her so clearly she wasn't even fully grown.

Driving 20 miles with a small hormonally challenged ferret loose and
exploring manically in the car isn't exactly a trivial task. Half the time
she was under the pedals just when I needed to brake and at one point we
ended up with her up my right trouser leg as far as my thigh while I was
going down a dual carriageway. Trying to steer the car at high speed with
one hand and push a ferret back down your leg with the other before she got
to any really sensitive areas isn't something I'm keen to try again. I stuck
her in the glove box at one point but apparently it isn't closed at the back
because 5 seconds later she was in the footwell again. Fortunately she
eventually curled up and fell fast asleep on my lap and the last 10 miles
were trouble free.

I had her spayed immediately as Google said female ferrets left in season
for too long can get very ill or even die and she's actually the most
gorgeous, friendly, gentle little thing you can possibly imagine. A
wonderful temperament, never nips, loves playing, comes when she's called,
only poops where I've got newspaper down which makes cleaning up a bit
easier (took a while and some considerable injury to the carpets to get that
sorted out but she learns very fast), goes mad with joy every morning (manic
dooking which ferret owners will understand) when she's let out of her cage
and has to groom my head and ears very meticulously before she goes off to
explore. She rides on the Dyson when I'm hoovering (the cat runs and hides
when the hoover's out but ferrets apparently have very little fear of
anything at all), dotes on me completely and I must say I'm totally smitten
with her too.
--
Dave Baker - Puma Race Engines (www.pumaracing.co.uk)