The Ferret Cage

(NOTE: pictures below)

For the last two weeks, we've been working on a ferret cage for SaurKid's pet, Basil.

You see, we've apparently developed allergies to this darling little animal. He's a bit stinky, too, no matter how much we clean his cage (and he's descented!). However, he's amazingly sweet tempered and there's just no way that we can bring ourselves to part with him.

My doctor has said that he has often contemplated providing a service where ninja assassins will (for a hefty fee) break into a client's home and kill the pet that is causing all the allergies. This way there is no guilt associated with doing the dirty deed yourself, and your kids won't blame you. Although he says there's another doctor who already wants "in" on the franchise, I doubt the business would take off.

Basil won't always be able to stay outdoors. Right now, the plan is to relocate him to this play cage every day but bring him in at night. When it gets too cold or too hot, he'll be back in his "home" in the spare room until the temperature's livable again.

Nice, massive cages cost a fortune. If we didn't want to spend thousands of dollars on a cage, we needed to build it ourselves. I discussed the initial layout with my dad and SaurKid. Originally, it was just going to be a simple, large plywood frame with some shelving. It would cost roughly a couple hundred dollars.

As I was thinking about it one day, I suddenly realized I might be able to utilize something which was already preconstructed: A used entertainment center! With a little modification, it might turn out better than we'd ever hoped, and it might cut out some time, too!

I drove around to the local thrift shops and found an ideal one for $40. I paid another $20 to have it delivered to our back porch, and we began the modifications. My dad helped locate a couple tools and cut the plywood back to part of it and Michelle's hubby helped with some parts I couldn't do alone. The rest was assembled by SaurKid and I. Altogether, it cost roughly $200 to create it:

The front and back sections which were open were covered in hardware cloth and mosquito screen, even though Michelle's hubby expressed doubts that any mosquito in her right mind would want to bite a stinky ferret. Yup, that's a pet door in the middle! It makes for easy access into the center area.

This is to prove to you that anyone could do this. I'm hardly Ms. FixIt. I spent over an hour putting a hinge on this door and ended up with many spent nails and two cracked fingernails as a result of it. I finally superglued the damned thing, and it seems to be holding very well.

You can buy a "hole saw" attachment to a drill, and it's loads of fun to use! Holes went everywhere. SaurKid had to restrain me, or the thing would've looked like swiss cheese! I also put contact paper down everywhere, to make it easier to clean up. We do have one concern: There's a lot of particle board in there. Hopefully, he'll remember where the litterbox is and if he doesn't, I can replace the parts with plywood.

This is the area he can retreat to if he wants complete privacy. There are no openings except for the holes which lead to the more open parts of the cage.

This is the jungle gym area. There's a hole at the top and bottom. I bought a heavy duty rain slicker and cut it to fit the areas I wanted, then put in grommets and used zip ties to fasten them down. These little yellow trampolines give him "steps" up and down.

Here Lord Basil is inspecting his new mansion. He seemed to like it a great deal, and immediatly went inside and ran through his crinkle tunnel (a long tunnel made of fabric and something that is wonderfully crinkly and appeals to his ferrety sense of play).

P.S. I made another addition this morning: outdoor gray carpeting. It's pretty indestructible, though we'll see what ferrets can do to it.

That's right: Ferrets. Basil's been very lonely, and SaurKid isn't always here to play with him, and I'm deathly allergic to him so *I* can't play with him, and I can't let him play with my two hypoallergenic dogs. So, I bought him a playmate today: Irene, a very dark little girl with a bandit's mask. She has the same, sweet temperment that Basil has. I named her after Irene Adler, the only woman that Sherlock Holmes ever admired. (I'll take pictures later. I can't wait to see SaurKid's face!)