Here’s a confession. Once upon a time (many, many years ago), I nearly made an impulse buy at a local Petco. The store had a tiny, round dog bed full of baby ferrets. Nearly impossible to resist, all curled up like furry noodles, with pointy and eager faces, I came very close to caving in.
Having once been an owner of a so-called exotic pet, I’m glad I didn’t heed the impulse because … really … what do I know about ferrets?
Um, pretty much nothing.
Back in the day, when Tom designed and built exhibits for a museum for children in Denver, there was a ferret who lived there. They would let him out to play when the museum was closed, and he loved to play hide and seek. Tom adored him and thought he was super smart.
So, imagine how pleased I was to meet this fellow, named Snotface Critter, at BlogPaws last month. I’ve never held a ferret before, and he was @#$@# awesome!!!
He wore the cutest little vest that attached to a thin leash, and he was remarkably calm around all the people and dogs. I don’t know … maybe ferrets are mellow?
What surprised me even more, though, was how well the various dogs in attendance handled Snotface’s presence.
In fact, this video of Snotface playing with Twiggy (a greyhound, who never lived at track or raced, but was raised by a family since puppyhood), floors me.
Twiggy is the “grandpuppy” of Yvonne Divita, one of the BlogPaws founders, who writes Scratchings and Sniffings, among other blogs. Clearly, I adored Twiggy instantly as well because she looks so much like Ginko.
Seriously, I cannot imagine trusting either of my dogs to play nicely with a ferret. I know that folks like Laura, over at The Dogs Are Really In Charge, clearly has a dog+ ferret system that works, but my dogs?
With their prey drive?
I’d fear a massacre.
We have wild ferrets who live around here, and Lilly has stared at them and chased them before. In fact, I once found her barking at a hole in the ground, and when I went to see what was up, this ferret popped its head out and screamed at me. That was years ago, and we haven’t seen one since, but there were three hanging around here at one point.
There was another video someone posted of Snotface playing with several dogs at BlogPaws, but I cannot find it again. One dog + one ferret scares me. Several dogs + one ferret … I’d need medication.
Maybe Twiggy is just super special. She recently helped welcome a dog rescued from a research lab into the extended family. He pretty much knew the lab and that’s it, and in this other video, she is teaching him to play. Clearly, Twiggy has awesome skills, across species.
Too cute! I’ve always been drawn to the ferrets at the pet stores as well.
Reminds me of a scene from one of our favorite movies, “The Big Lebowski.” Anyway, I’ve always been afraid that my dogs would not take well to one either.
I really have had a LOT of dogs meet the ferrets over the years and have only had problems with one (a ridgeback). Granted most of the dogs were in the sporting, herding, or toy group. Dogs who are obsessed with squirrels have had no problem with the ferrets! And surprisingly a lot of dogs end up scared of them! But yes, not all dogs and ferrets will get along especially terriers. And even I still have to monitor playtime always to make sure that neither one is playing too rough.
And to be a stickler on terms, I doubt that you had wild ferrets in the yard. The ferret pretty much can’t survive in the wild. Everyone gets them from petstores where they are all neutered/spayed and can’t reproduce. And they are pretty much fearless so would get killed in an instant for not backing down from predators. But polecats (in europe) or blackfooted ferrets are wild 🙂 Sorry to harp on your choice of words and I am sure you know the difference, it’s just that everyone always thinks ferrets are wild animals…
Yes. You are right. Harp away. I assume what we have here are either weasels (?) or blackfooted ferrets … the real, wild kind. :o)
I met Snotface who was indeed a sweetie, but I could never have predicted the greyhound-ferret interaction; that film is awesome. I adore greyhounds, but they do tend to have a high prey drive. When I first got Frankie, I brought him over to visit a friend with two greyhounds. If he hadn’t been sitting in my lap I’d hate to think what might have happened; one of the dogs’ approach to him was decidedly *not* friendly.
Yep. Anyone with small animals must be careful about traditionally trained greyhounds (or really any sighthound). When you amp up that instinct through chase training, I personally believe it’s hard to turn that off.
The reason, I think, Twiggy is so special is that she NEVER lived at a race track or raced. She has been in a family home since she was tiny, so she never got that instinct really encouraged.
Still, neither of my dogs have done lure coursing, but they still have a tremendous chase/catch instinct from interacting with small wild animals here.
With the prey drive of Sibes – no way, no how @ Chez Herd. So glad others can make it work, though.
Love it! Such a cute video! Ferrets are hard to resist. I was lucky enough once to get to babysit one for two days. It was back when I used to live in an apartment complex and I was out walking Maddie one night when she stopped and froze. It turned out she had spotted a loose ferret. I got it to come to me and kept it for two days while looking for the owners. I even took it to work with me, and did end up finding the owners who were really happy to have their ferret back.