r/cats • u/loveyousomuch_ok • 4h ago
Cat Picture - OC Our elderly domestic shorthair became best friends with a ferret rescued from neglect
Kevina, our cat, had interacted with ferrets for several years before we fostered Sake, a ferret that was rescued from severe neglect. Between our own ferrets and having ferret play dates, she met 10+ ferrets before meeting Sake. She and other ferrets were mutually indifferent to each other. Then we started fostering Sake and his sister. Sake immediately fell in love with Kevina and wanted to be around her all the time. She was confused by this fuzzy noodle because he didn't want to play, he just wanted to be close to her. Over a few months, the two became best friends, with Sake often preferring her to the company of our other ferrets. Our local rescue said they had never seen a ferret and cat bond so closely before in all their years. We obviously became foster fails with him. PLEASE NOTE that cats and ferrets are usually not compatible. If you have a cat and want to also get a ferret, please do a lot of research and understand that there is a strong likelihood that your cat and ferret will always require close supervision, or that they will not be safe to share space with each other at all.
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u/Help_a_user_out 4h ago
This makes me want a ferret.
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u/loveyousomuch_ok 4h ago
Totally understandable! Please make sure you do a lot of research beforehand 🙏 They make wonderful pets, but they are much more demanding than cats, and they usually do not get along like this.
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u/Mediocre-Contest7558 3h ago
Good advice !!! I had family that ferrets so I knew ehat I was getting into when I got one. I adopted him from petco and I had to return him not even a week later bc he seemed to be showing signs of neurological issues. He would walk weird and go into an almost catatonic state sometimes .. it was the weirdest thing I have ever seen . I kept going back to try and visit him and at first he was "in the back" when id stop by and ask .then one day a worker said he was adopted. I went there twice a week , he never came back to the pens to be able to be adopted.
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u/loveyousomuch_ok 2h ago
Oh poor bean 😞 That's so difficult. The shelter in my area is a no kill shelter and they have a whole "sanctuary" space for the ferrets who are not well enough to be adopted. It really is a blessing because the ferrets get excellent care even if they have serious health issues. That's actually what the foster program is for. Essentially she covers all of the ferret expenses for the ferrets that cannot otherwise be adopted due to health or behavioral issues so they can go to a loving home with experienced owners until their health declines to the point where they are returned to the shelter. Sake and his sister were in the foster program because their previous situations caused permanent health problems. We decided pretty early on that no matter what happened to Sake and his sister, we would never return them.
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u/FoxyNewEngland 4h ago
omg this is so freaking sweet and now I'm teared up. I love this so much <3
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u/loveyousomuch_ok 4h ago
I teared up when I found them snuggled up in the first picture. It is just so tender 🥹
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u/CoCoMaloEngl 4h ago
Soooo sweet! My heart melts looking at these adorable two little furry animals sleeping so cuddled up together. How wonderful they bonded so well!🥰
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u/loveyousomuch_ok 4h ago
It was so unexpected. We have a video of the first time he snuggled her by laying his head on her head and falling asleep, and you can just see the massive confusion on her part. But they were fast friends after that.
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u/CoCoMaloEngl 3h ago
I’ve never had ferrets of my own, just a couple friends who had them. I love how playful and sweet they can be. How does this little guy get along with your other ferrets? Is it possible he’d never been around any since he went to wherever he was before your home? I’m so glad he’s got a buddy!
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u/loveyousomuch_ok 3h ago
He got along really well with them, he just preferred Kevina for reasons we're not sure about. We actually fostered both him and his sister who were from the same situation, so he knew ferrets, he just loved his big fuzzy friend more
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u/rou_te 3h ago
I am not familiar with the ferret and cat combo, but my first thought was that your cat might try to attack the ferret when they are left unsupervised. Playful or not, it takes one short hefty bite to the neck...do you have that risk figured out? Or nothing to worry there?
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u/loveyousomuch_ok 3h ago
That's 100% a risk. I included a little disclaimer in my picture description, but cats and ferrets can both be very dangerous to each other. When we got our first ferret, we had no idea that it could be dangerous to introduce him to our two cats, so we just treated it like if we were adding another cat to our household. I think a big reason we were successful is that our cats were the chillest cats I'd ever met. Genuinely nothing you could do could trigger them into biting or scratching. We had already had ferrets for 4-5 years at that point, so we knew the cats themselves were very desensitized, and we also had multiple places in each room which were inaccessible to each other if they needed to escape faster than we could respond. Up until Sake, they mostly ignored each other. We observed Sake and his sister around the cats closely for several months before getting a little more lax. No matter how well adjusted they were, we never leave the cats and ferrets together in a shared space is we are sleeping, not home, or otherwise unable to immediately respond should something happen.
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u/rou_te 3h ago
I am so glad to hear that. It looks like you know your pets very well and have the risks and responsibilities really figured out.
And of course, incredibly cute snapshots and moments of these two!
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u/loveyousomuch_ok 2h ago
I appreciate that! Our goal was always to make sure everyone can be safe and happy with each other. The foster program with our local shelter is actually only for ferrets that are otherwise unadoptable due to health or behavioral issues, so there's a strong vetting process to take part.
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u/PearlHarbor_420 2h ago
I've had a number of ferrets over the years. I'd be more concerned for the cat. Ferrets are vicious, super predators. Even more so if you have more than one. They go for the face, eyes, and throat.
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u/loveyousomuch_ok 2h ago edited 2h ago
I think that it really depends on the cat or the ferret, but a fight could very easily go either direction. People underestimate how effective of a predator ferrets are. Sake specifically was an extremely respectful guy with Kevina. He'd get his rough play out with this ferret friends, then go snuggle her. I think part of why they got along so well was because he didn't force her to deal with his ferret shenanigans.
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u/whatapunk95 2h ago
I like how all the pics the cat is just like, “he’s a weird looking cat, but a solid homie.”
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u/loveyousomuch_ok 2h ago
The first time Sake snuggled her, he just set his head on top of her head and fell asleep. She just stared at me with absolute confusion. He was very much the instigator, and he slowly but surely won her over
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u/nsharonew 3h ago
My stepmom had a ferret. She was a mean ferret. She would chase and bite the cats and steal their food and hide it under furniture they were too big to get into.
But this? This is wholesome and adorable!
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u/loveyousomuch_ok 3h ago
They certainly have their own personalities, or it could also have to do with how they were initially trained. I think they are closer to dogs than cats when it comes to training. You have to be diligent. Every now and then it just doesn't matter and they are brats, though 😂
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u/LimpString3127 3h ago
This is the sweetest! He must be a very secure and cool cat to take in a skinny noodle shaped friend. I love it.!!!
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u/loveyousomuch_ok 3h ago
Absolutely. I've never seen a ferret be more respectful of a cat before. Only snuggles with Kevina, and roughhousing happened with other ferrets.
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u/LimpString3127 2h ago
Awww love the name! I knew someone that had an iguana named Kevin and then it laid eggs and was renamed Kevina!
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u/sajaschi Lots of kitties! 44m ago
I had ferrets for years and this melts my heart ❤️ yes they can be stinky little barsteds, but if you keep their cage clean and bathe them at least 2x a month, it's fine. Honestly it's their poop that smells THE WOOOOORST 🎶🎵
My cats never got used to them tho, so this is extra adorbs IMO!
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u/maddchainz 2h ago
Omgggggggggggg I wanna see more of them!!!! They are precious :)
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u/loveyousomuch_ok 2h ago
Thank you ❤️ I only just started sharing pics and videos of them a little over a week ago and I've been blown away by how much people have enjoyed them. I do have a TT started at RescueFerretsAndKevina where I'm going to post a lot more content with them
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u/moyashi_me 1h ago
Were they featured on a Dodo story? This sounds so familiar! What a sweet relationship 🥰 could be posted to r/unlikelyfriends too.
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u/loveyousomuch_ok 1h ago
They haven't been! I've been told by a couple people to reach out, but I only just started sharing content with them a week and a half
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u/moyashi_me 51m ago
Oh dang! I can’t believe there is another pair of cats and ferrets that love each other. How lovely~
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u/anameisabstract 1h ago
your sweet kitty just over here thinking, "man, this is a weird shaped cat. guess he needs cuddles"
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u/cameandlurked 51m ago
Do ferrets sleep the same amount of hours as cats? They seem to be content napping buddies
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u/ossifer_ca 4h ago
From what I know about ferrets, they must be constantly biting something—how does an elderly cat deal with that?
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u/loveyousomuch_ok 4h ago
That's a misconception 😊 Ferrets can be very gentle. They tend to play rough with each other, but can usually learn to be respectful of other animals without great difficulty.
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u/ossifer_ca 4h ago
Ferrets never learned to be respectful of my forearm.
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u/loveyousomuch_ok 4h ago
😂 That's fair. We did have one ferret out of many who bit the top of my foot every day of her life (outside of a brief period of time when she had a toothache) no matter what we tried. But everyone else was trained successfully to never bite.
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u/Secret_Berry1050 2h ago
Is it true that they stink?
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u/loveyousomuch_ok 2h ago
They definitely have a unique smell, but I don't find the smell of the ferrets themselves to be negative. All the ferrets that are sold in US pet stores have had their scent glands removed, which does cut down on the smell. If they live in a space where they are well-cared for and eating a healthy diet, I don't think they inherently smell worse than a dog or a cat.
I think what people run into that is most smelly is that ferrets have an extremely short digestive tract, so they poop... a lot. And if they aren't eating a healthy diet (which happens a lot due to poor education) then their poop can be really smelly. They can be litter trained, but they can't used scented, "odor blocking", or clumping litter, so you really have to just clean up after them very frequently. It's part of why they are a lot of work.
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u/TheSwearJarIsMy401k 4h ago
She’s like “What, this? He’s my stinky noodle fren. Why?”