I might be getting a Ferret.
I already have a big, old, tom cat who lords it over my place, takes up the lions share of my waterbed when I’m trying to sleep and who likes to climb up on my side and kneed my ribs with his needle tipped claws. (He looks so absolutely enthralled while giving me the ‘torture of 1000 cuts’ that I tolerate it. I guess he thinks he’s paying me a compliment.)
My neighbor’s kid, who is in college, has one. He’s out of town most of the time at school and she’s not to crazy about the critter, so it sits, day after day, in a little room, alone, usually in whatever light filters through the closed venetian blinds, undisturbed except when it’s waste tray is cleaned or it’s food and water checked. It doesn’t even have any toys. I was offered the critter and I’ve been thinking about it. Especially since I fed her animals when she had to leave for a few days and took the little bugger out of his cage and played with him.
He’s so cute!
However, I worry if he and my cat will get along. Will I have to put my cat in another room when I take the little guy out for a bit? Should I place him and cage outside to soak up a bit of sun during the day? (My apartment is small, with every window already crowded with things so I can’t place the cage near one.) Will my cat get jealous?
The Ferret is such a cool little guy though and curious as hell and friendly. He smells slightly, but I think a bath will cure that. He’s smaller than those shown on the movie ‘Beastmaster.’ Plus, it bothers me to know he sits in that room, day after day, week after week, alone and unplayed with.
Cat’s and ferrets don’t mix! Especially with old set-in-their-ways cats.
Here in San Francisco, illegality aside, ferrets have become trendy little pets. Problem is the critters, while not truly wild, are not really domesticated either, and I can’t tell you how many second-hand ferrets I have been offered.
I have known of two bad ferret expieriences firsthand. The first was a friend’s cat who had a run in with a roomate’s ferret. The poor thing had it’s nose deeply cut and an eye scratched so badly that the eyelid had to be stitched shut for weeks to allow healing (it’s fine now).
The other was a person I know who had her pet ferret tear into her earlobe as she snuggled it over her shoulder. It was something she had done with it since it was a pup, and she has no idea what set it off. The thing wouldn’t let go(!!!), squeezing it just made it bite down harder, and she ended up having to run, ferret and all, and jump into her swimming pool to get it to let go. Ugh!
I got a cat going on two years ago, and a ferret a couple of months ago. They get along fine when Twitch, the ferret, is in her cage. They bat at each other through the bars and I’ve walked into my bedroom to find Marlin (the cat) curled up with his back against the cage while Twitch, on the inside, is curled with her back toward Marlin’s, as if they’re napping together.
Marlin is restricted to the bedroom while Twitch has her daily run throughout the rest of the apartment (minus the kitchen-- too much for her to get into in there). I have a friend who used to keep cats and ferrets (gave the ferrets up recently because he didn’t have time to give them the attention they needed anymore-- his sister has them now), and his menagerie got along quite well. The only reason I keep Marlin away from Twitch for now is that Marlin is huge and the kind of mutual batting they enjoy through the cage bars could prove harmful “in person.”
Your cat might get jealous, I know Marlin’s had some issues, but I think he’d have been a bit put out whether it was another cat or a ferret or a puppy or whatever. We had a couple “Ok, you got a new pet, so I’ll pee on the floor” incidents, but he’s adjusting now. I just spend more time cuddling him.
As for the ferret smell, all I can say is Twitch, and my boyfriend’s three ferrets, all smell fine. Baths and cage-cleanings help. Maybe some other ferret owner on the board can chime in about this, though-- if he really smells bad, I suppose it could be a sign of illness. If you do adopt the little critter (and bless yer heart for wanting to!), get him checked out by a vet, especially since he’s been semi-neglected for so long.
BTW, my personal experince with ferrets has been bad. They were trendy in college and everyone I knew who had one ended up hating it in about 2 months. They aren’t cuddly or social enough to stay adorable. They quickly become no more than a smelly daily hassle, and yes they do smell alot, although I am sure when you live with it and start smelling like them it probably isn’t very noticable.
We own five ferrets, and a dog, but no cats. However our ferrets have been mixed on occasions with cats. At a freinds home. Generally it depends on the cat and the ferret. It has been my experience that at least in numbers the ferrets will gang up on the cat and drive it nutz. Depending on your Toms personallity you may be able to get away with it if you introduce them to each other (supervised) a little bit at a time. Then again it may not work at all.
Even if you don’t take the ferret for yourself, maybe you should take it out of that situation where it seems to be quite neglected. Maybe you could find a better home for it if your cat doesn’t go for having company.
We have two female ferrets, one who adopted us about three and a half years ago, and one who we bought a year later.
Cats and ferrets CAN mix, but it usually works better if they’re introduced when they’re young. We take our ferrets to visit both sets of our parents, who both have a cat. Neither cat likes our ferrets, but both of those cats have a history of not liking any new animal that comes into the house. It would definitely need an adjustment time. When we brought our second ferret home we had to keep the two ferrets apart for a while, until they got used to the other one being around. They have very different personalities too; one is nice and very friendly, and the other is more aggressive and will nip. Personality seems to depend a lot on the environment and training they had when they were young.
They are very curious, as you mentioned, and if you do adopt this one you’ll need to do a good ferret-proofing of the house - but there are some good books and web sites that can tell you how to do that. http://www.ferretcentral.org has a lot of information as well as links to other ferret sites. If you don’t think it’s going to work for you and your cat, you could check with a ferret shelter in your area - they might have some names of people waiting to adopt ferrets (that’s assuming your neighbor is agreeable, of course.)
From the way you described your cat’s personality, I would say definitely think twice before bringing in the ferret. It sounds like your cat might not be too accepting of any new animal in the household regardless of species. One thing you should try first is bringing the ferret, in its cage, over for a visit and seeing what kind of reaction you get.