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Modern Ferret News Mailing List Issue #34
http://www.ferretnews.com
November 29, 2002
by Mary R. Shefferman and Eric Shefferman
contact: mary modernferret.com
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Hi
We hope you all had a happy Thanksgiving and that both
you and your ferrets have feasted well.
Of course, the day after Thanksgiving signals the start
of the holiday buying season. For all of your ferrety
purchases, we're here to help!
We have a whole bunch of products available at our
http://www.ferrettradingpost.com
including the brand new Ferret Faces 2003 Calendar
at 20% off when you use the coupon given later in
this newsletter (hurry! this coupon is only good
until November 30).
At our Ferret Designs site we have ferrety holiday
greeting cards and other special holiday products, see:
http://www.cafeshops.com/cp/store.aspx?s=ferretdesigns.33785
The best-selling items this season have been our line
of "Ask Me About My Grandferrets" products. Everything
from T-shirts to mugs to picture frames for the proud
ferret grandparent. See all the great gift ideas here:
http://www.cafeshops.com/cp/store.aspx?s=ferretdesigns.33784
And of course there's all the old favorites: #1 Ferret Mom,
Love Me Love My Ferret, World's Greatest Ferret Dad, etc.
http://www.cafeshops.com/cp/store.aspx?s=ferretdesigns.33783
For those of you who've been following the newsletter
for a while, you know that we recently moved to a new
place. In this issue of the newsletter is an article
on the tools you need for "Quickie" ferret proofing.
If you're going to move soon, you'll probably want to
hang on to a copy of this.
Wishing you all a wonderful December!
- Eric
P.S.
I finally got around to putting up the cover of issue #33
of Modern Ferret magazine. You can see this great photo
of Richard Bach and his ferrets here (just scroll down):
http://modernferretstore.com/1/cat1.htm
Subscribe and read the huge interview with him!
----- The Modern Ferret News -----
>>> In this issue: <<<
==> Tools For Quickie Ferret Proofing
by Eric Shefferman
==> Early Bird Shopping Coupon (expires Nov 30!)
==> Update on Modern Ferret Things
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Or a ferret mug, tote bag, or mousepad.
Or a clock, frosted mug, or flying disk!
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Shopping at Ferret Designs helps us be able to
offer this newsletter for free! Shop today!
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==> Tools For Quickie Ferret Proofing
by Eric Shefferman
(We just moved our home and business at the end of
October and are in the process of setting up the new
place for both living in and for producing Modern Ferret
magazine.)
This move has really pointed out that there are two
kinds of ferret proofing:
Quickie ferret proofing - The goal is to make an area
safe for the ferrets to play in. Anything goes if it
gets the job done. Ferret safety while they are having
supervised play is all that is important.
Home ferret proofing - The goal is to make your home
safe for ferrets while doing so in an attractive
and permanent manner.
Right now we're still unpacking so we're basically
stuck in the Quickie mode - we need to make sure a
room (in this case, our bedroom) is safe for the
ferrets to run around in.
We don't need the solution to look pretty right now,
we just need to get the job done. We want to make sure
there's nothing they can climb onto, get under, or
squeeze into.
We chose to do the bedroom since it was an area large
enough to give the ferrets a good run, but small enough
that we could go over it in detail quickly. Now that the
ferrets can run, we're working on unpacking and ferret
proofing the main living area, which is where the ferrets
will eventually be playing.
Here's a list of the items that have been most useful
in our Quickie Ferret Proofing efforts:
- Stiff Cardboard -
(like from heavy-duty moving boxes)
Our friend Melissa used this along with some duct tape
to make the bottom edge of the closet doors low enough
to keep the ferrets out.
- Duct Tape -
All-around great for temporarily sticking things
places. Just make sure that it's not placed so that
ferrets might get their whiskers stuck in it.
- Thin Flat Wood -
(anything solid & cheap - for example: pegboard)
We used extra sheets of thin wood flooring material
to block off the baseboard heating behind the bed.
Gabrielle was going under the baseboards and finding
holes that she might be able to fit into and get into
the walls. We used the bed to hold the flooring
material in place against the baseboard.
- Heavy Objects and/or Heavy Unpacked Boxes -
You're sure to have a lot of these when you first
move! Right now we have a box with ten pounds of
ankle weights blocking a hole that leads into the
closet. Not a good permanent solution, but it gets
the job done!
- Towels -
Great for plugging holes (as long as you will be
closely supervising to make sure no ferrets pull them
out of the holes). Also great for creating nap spots --
since ferrets don't tend to use their sleeping spots
as bathroom spots.
Make sure you have a good supply of these items on hand.
You'll want to go all around on the floor looking for
holes down and out as well as furniture placed that can
help ferrets climb up to unsafe places.
When you spot a ferret figuring out some new way to get
into trouble, you just:
1. Swoop in and put everybody back in the cage.
2. Scratch your head and figure out how to make the area safe.
3. Let the ferrets back in and see what they do now!
Keep repeating the above steps for a while until you
start to feel confident. That's when your ferrets will
get really inventive. For example, our angora ferret,
Koosh, decided that he could go under the blankets and
chew on the bottom blanket without us seeing him. Luckily
for both him and us, we noticed that he was too busy
while tunneling under the blankets and we caught him in
the act. Since it seems he was only interested in chewing
on one particular blanket, we just removed that one.
The joys of keeping up with your ferrets!
:)
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If you've been reading this newsletter and would
like to see what Mary and Eric do in a real printed
magazine, you can go to our online store and order
a single copy.
http://modernferretstore.com/24/cat24.htm
Modern Ferret Magazine issue #33 features:
- A *huge* interview with best-selling author
Richard Bach (_Jonathan Livingston Seagull_
and now his new books _The Ferret Chronicles_)
- Is it a Boy or a Girl? How to sex a ferret
- Teeth, Claws, and Eyeballs: Why are my ferret's
teeth so long? by Bob Church
- Dear Gabby's tips for new ferret parents
- The Bones of a ferret: Bacula
- Ferrety Nursery Rhymes
- plus ferret cartoons, funny stories, and more!
*and* a very special Ferret Faces Pin-Up Centerfold!
You can also order a subscription, back issues,
and other Modern Ferret products from the site.
http://modernferretstore.com
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==> Early Bird Shopping Coupon
Help support this newsletter, get your holiday
shopping done early, and save money at the same time!
From now until November 30, you get 20% off on the
great items below when you shop at our Ferret Trading
Post online store!
When you check out just enter the coupon code below:
ferretnews33
and the following items will all be discounted 20%!
(Buy as many items as you want with this coupon and
get the discount on all of them!)
** The Ferret Faces 2003 Calendar and Address Book **
http://ferrettradingpost.com/caladbook.html
This is the great new calendar and address book that
we've made. Give it a look! Sharp close-up photography
of ferret faces!
You can see all 12 faces from this year's calendar by
going here:
http://ferretfaces.com/january2003.html
** 500 Things My Ferret Told Me **
http://ferrettradingpost.com/500ferret.html
This fun book gives you 500 enjoyable ferrety quotes
all wrapped up in a nifty little square book. You
can save 20% ordering a copy for yourself or get
extra copies with our -buy two get one free- deal and
save 20% off that as well! Order them now!
** The Monster Pack of Modern Ferret Back Issues **
http://ferrettradingpost.com/take25pack.html
We've renamed the Take 25 Pack to be in the spirit
of Halloween and we've even thrown in a bonus mug!
"I enjoyed every page of the Modern Ferret Take
25 Pack. This was an excellent deal for me. The
informative articles on ferret health, the humorous
stories, and the sweet photos of other people's
fuzzies is awesome. I just wish that I had the
other back issues that are out of stock! I keep
them in a basket so I can refer to them when one
of my ferts has a health or behavioral issue."
--Joyce Huff and the 9 li'l "devils"
(Sara, Kooter, Fuzz, Tootsie, Fuji, Nikki, Sasha,
Tweeters, and Spanky), Pennsylvania
This Holiday Season, get yourself and your ferret-
loving friends a gift they'll enjoy and that will
help them help their ferrets live happier, healthier
lives -- the Modern Ferret Monster Pack!
** The Wit and Wisdom of the Modern Ferrets **
http://ferrettradingpost.com/witandwisofm.html
Compiled from the columns written by our ferrets
during the first 5 years of publishing Modern Ferret
Magazine, this book has the kind of writing that
got us to be chosen as one of the 12 Best Magazines
in the Magazine Business!
Ferret care tips written by ferrets -- what could
be more educational while being enjoyable to read?
Remember:
You can save 20% on any (or all!) of the above
items just by entering the coupon code
ferretnews33
on the checkout page. This offer is good until
November 30, 2002, so get your shopping done early!
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==> Update on Modern Ferret Things
Please tell other ferret people to go to our site
ferretnews.com and subscribe to this newsletter!
The more the merrier!
One of the things that sets _Modern Ferret_ magazine
apart from other publications is that we don't just
write about having pet ferrets, we actually _do_ have
pet ferrets.
This move has really given us the opportunity to
re-examine ferret proofing by actually having to
start ferret proofing an entire new place. Although
we've ferret proofed places before, viewing a fresh
new place from a ferret's perspective always brings
up new ideas for both what could be dangerous to a
ferret and what can be done to make it safer.
We've never had ferrets in our bedroom before - our
ferrets have always had full run of the living room
area, but we've never had a bedroom that was safe
enough for them. It's pretty exciting to watch
Koosh and Gabby hopping all over our bed and making
cute little "dook dook" noises.
A lot of good ferret proofing articles are on the
way as we live through the experience!
-- Newsletter delivery
Please remember: If we send out the newsletter and
the email is returned to us (for example if your
email box is temporarily full), our current software
will remove you from the list.
If you find that you suddenly stop getting the
Modern Ferret News, please try joining again at:
http://www.ferretnews.com
-- Holiday Shopping
Start your shopping now!
Remember that by shopping at
http://www.FerretDesigns.com
and at
http://www.FerretTradingPost.com
you help support this newsletter and keep it free.
For our friends outside of the United States,
see the ordering information here:
http://ferretfaces.com/orderforeign.html
That's it for this issue!
Stay tuned! More great stuff is on the way!
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Please let your ferret friends know about this
newsletter and encourage them to read it.
Shopping at these websites to helps support this
newsletter and keep it free.
http://www.ferretdesigns.com
http://www.ferrettradingpost.com
You can provide feedback about this issue by sending email to:
marymodernferret.com
Disclaimer:
http://ferretnews.com/disclaimer.html
The shortened version of the disclaimer is:
If your ferret is ill or you think your ferret
is ill, bring your ferret to a ferret
knowledgeable veterinarian.
Copyright 2002 Modern Ferret magazine.
All rights reserved.
http://www.modernferret.com
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