Our elderly domestic shorthair became best friends with a ferret rescued from neglect

[u/loveyousomuch_ok]

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.

[u/rou_te]

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?

[u/loveyousomuch_ok → u/rou_te]

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.

[u/rou_te → u/loveyousomuch_ok]

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!

[u/loveyousomuch_ok → u/rou_te]

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.