I’ve been told this would be a more appropriate board for this discussion.
Here is my sad woeful tale:
My wife owned four ferrets one of which was a nasty little biter. A week ago the weasels were loose in the basement while I was, for once, doing laundry. Unknown to me the nasty little biter was sleeping in one of the piles of laundry and was inadvertently washed. Needless to say it didn’t make it through the spin cycle. To make matter worse my wife unloaded the washer to find a very clean, but very, very dead weasel on the top of the load. This was of course followed my much wailing and my immediately being expelled to the doghouse. To regain entrance to the house and be allowed on the couch was a wallet draining experience. One night at an expensive B and B, ($212). Purchase of another (younger) ferret ($120). Flowers ($50). On top of this someone gave her an additional ferret. So not only was the ferret extermination overly expensive, it resulted in an addition to the population.
Note:
Before I am accused of being intentionally cruel to animals I must state, this was an honest accident and occured without malice. Even if I am glad the biter is gone, and by biter I meen blood drawing scar leaving biter.
My questions are:
Should I feel remorse? I no longer am allowed to do laundry, and can once again go barefoot in my own house.
How long can ferrets actually swim during the spin cycle?
Did the addition of bleach have any effect on its demise?
What does a ferret in a washing machine really sound like?
Is there a better way to minimize the total population?
Could I have gotten out of the doghouse without additional varmints being added to the population?
getting rid of ferrets: yes- Go out to a reputable breeder, and buy a pet quality Bengal cat, preferably an “F3” (close to the wild)<Like I have> (See if you can get an adult cat- they often sell cheap or even give away even show quality neuterer male ex-show cats). Bengals are part Asian Leopard cat. Most kitties will play nicely with ferrets- well, actually, the ferrets tease the hell out of them, but the cats do not 'turn on them". Not bengals- they are WAY faster than regular cats, and they tend to see anything up to the size of a very small deer as prey. On the bengal chat board, there was an interesting story of what happened when a man, whose wife wanted another cat -(they were limited to 2 by rules) got a ferret instead. “Pounce…chomp”. Ooops!
Just so you all know where I’m coming from, I chastised Harold on this subject in GQ earlier. My wife and I own two ferrets.
And yet, your flip questions below seem to take delight in the death of the ferret.
Understood. Judging by the considerable enmity you hold toward this particular weasel, it seems to me you should have spoken to your wife about it a long time ago, and looked into methods of disciplining/training (yes, it can be done) or, failing that, should have left it with a shelter. Our weasels nip (playfully) upon occasion, but they have never broken the skin. If they did, I would be concerned and look to fix the problem.
Yes.
Har har. Nothing like making light of the horrible death of an innocent creature. This ain’t no Itchy & Scratchy cartoon.
Huh? Are you serious? If you mean the population of ferrets in your house, talk to your wife, tell her you don’t want that many, and give them to a shelter. If you mean worldwide population … well, just try to discourage people from buying them and the breeders will stop trying to meet the demand.
Yes. Tell your wife you don’t want any more ferrets. Wanting/not wanting to have pets is as basic a relationship issue as wanting/not wanting to have kids.
