I adored mine, and they had such funny, playful little ways.
I ran a home daycare for 18 years. All the kids
ladored my ferrets, and they had a great tiem playing with them. (I also had other pets--snakes, cats, a lizard. My home was almost like a petting zoo! That is one of the things my--now adult--former daycare kids always talk about: how much fun they had with all the animals at my home.)
I love animals, and so do all the kids I raised in my daycare, my own two kids included.
But a baby is a fragile creature. No baby should be left alone, unguarded, with
any animal. As I said in my previous post--with a link included to the article about it--even a sweet, adorable 4-pound Pomeranian can harm (in that case,
kill) a baby. That doesn't make Poms essentially dangerous or evil-, or "bad" or "dangerous" pets.
But dogs, cats, and--yes--ferrets are predators. (Well, dogs are primarily scavengers, but they are predators, too.) Predators have sharp teeth and they hunt. They also chew on things.
Ferrets can actually kill animals larger than themselves, like large rats. They are very fast, efficient predators. Cats are among nature's most efficient killing machines. When you see a kitten pounce on a rustling piece of paper, that adorable little furball is really practicing his killing skills.
I have several ferret anecdotes on my
Pet Tales website (the site where I post funny, ture animal stories):
Pet Taleshttp://pettales.homestead.com/index.html"Ferret Stash"
http://pettales.homestead.com/stash.html"Ferrets Have a Rubber Fetish"
http://pettales.homestead.com/rubber.html"Like Taking Pacifiers from a Baby"
http://pettales.homestead.com/pacifiers.html"Today, the Counter and the Bookshelves--Tomorrow, Mt. Everest!"
(This one is actually my favorite ferret story from my years a a ferret person.)http://pettales.homestead.com/climbers.htmlIf you read those stories, I think you will begin to understand the charm that ferrets have for those of us who keep (or have kept) them as pets.
People keep dogs as pets, even though even a medium sized dog
could ekill an adult if it wanted to, and could easily kill a child. But most dogs
don't want to kill us--except with affection and exhaustive play!
And people keep cats, even though cats can do real harm if they want to. Some cats will bite and scratch under certain conditions, and cats can really rip you up with their teeth and claws!
Oh, and let's talk about parrots. I adore parrots, but I am very, very cautious around them, because their powerful beaks can chomp through metal--and finger bones.
A good friend of mine (one of my former daycare babies--now almost 27 years old) has a parrot (she named her Elvis) that she rescued from abuse. Because of that past abuse, Elvis doesn't trust
anybody except Lisa. I adore Elvis, and Elvis loves me--at a distance. WhThe first time I was introduced to the bird, I started trying to teach her to whistle the theme song from the old
Andy Griffith show. After the first time I did that every tieme I would visit Lisa, Elvis would spot me across the room and begin trying to whistle that song at me. She still can't do it (after 5 years of trying--but I am only over there about 8 or 10 times a year, so she doesn't get that much practice). Still, the minute she sees me, she begins stretching her beak and tongue to warm up, and then starts whistling at me. I never initiate our whistling sessions; Elvis does.
She gets excited when she sees me, but she absolutely does
not want me to touch her, and I never would. First of all, I wouldn't want to stress her, and secondly, I would not want to get bitten, and I
know that if my hand ever got within reach, I would get bitten.
Nevertheless, Elvis is a great bird, and I genuinely enjoy visiting with her and interacting with her. I want desperately to pet her and hold her, but I know I never will be able to, and it makes me sad to know that; but I still enjoy what I can of her personality, and believe me, it is very, very enjoyable.
I have
never touched Elvis, not once. She won't let anyone touch her but Lisa, and on those few occasions when someone else has tried, Elvis has bitten that person severely. She hasn't cut through anyone's finger bone, but only because she is a fairly small parrot, a green African conure. She has, however, given some pretty deep, painful wounds. Here is a picture of the type of conure Elvis is:
http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=
&imgrefurl=
http://pets.webshots.com/photo/2385637950087469246JOmDAw&usg=__HKNZrcqNUfL4Uw6VQRr2O1rloJc=&h=1600&w=2400&sz=602&hl=en&start=12&zoom=1&tbnid=ScIn_gGgsYTfGM:&tbnh=111&tbnw=146&prev=/images%3Fq%3Daqqfrican%2Bconure%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DN%26rls%3Dcom.microsoft:en-us:IE-Address%26biw%3D917%26bih%3D518%26tbs%3Disch:1&um=1&itbs=1&iact=hc&vpx=616&vpy=256&dur=32&hovh=183&hovw=275&tx=86&ty=208&ei=9r0sTZrzD9GcnwfY6YG5DA&oei=7r0sTdngIJGmnwfkwYTjCQ&esq=2&page=2&ndsp=15&ved=1t:429,r:9,s:12Lisa has a 16-month old son. She is very careful to make sure that Oliver and Elvis never are within touching reach of each other, and that Oliver is never alone in a situation where he could get within reach of Elvis's fearsome beak. Another friend of mine had to let his parents take
his parrot Beau for a few years when his own son became mobile as a todler, until the boy was old enough to know better than to reach into Beau's cage and lose a finger.
But dogs, cats, parrots--and
ferrets--are still wonderful, playful, loving pets. Under certain conditions they
can be dangerous, especially to small children and babies, but a responsible adult simply makes sure that such conditions never pertain.
I wish ferrets lived longer. If they did, I would have a couple, even now, though I have three adult cats and a kitten. (One of my adult cats is 18 years old, so I don't expect that she has too many years left in her
. Though she is fine right now, she could run out of time at almost any moment, since she is at the end point of even a long-lived cat's life span.)
Since even a 15-20 year life span for cats, and a 10-14 year life span for dogs, is so short, adopting one means inevitable grief. But having a beloved pet die at 5-8 years (and 8 is an unusual accomplishment, becauseq ferrets usually die much younger) is just too painful. It is like losing a family member every few years. And because they are such sweet, fun pets, the hole they leave in one's life is huge, even though they weigh only 1.5 or 2 to 2.5 pounds (females) to 4 or 5 pounds (males).
My last ferret article on my Pet Tales site is entitled "Why I Will Probably Never Have Another Ferret." I wrote and posted it in my grief after my last ferret (my precious little Ivy) died: http://pettales.homestead.com/ivy.html
Certainly ferrets are not appropriate pets for everyone, but they are wonderful pets for those who cn appreciate them and who take the time to learn how to properly care for them.
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