I know I should be able to just shrug it off, but it just gets really tiresome when people think it's completely fine to openly insult me and my ferret when I'm out in public. I get weird looks all the time, but when people just walk up to me and tell me my animal is gross is just absolutely ridiculous. I'm sorry I didn't bring my little Yorkie with me today, but I did bring a little fuzzy that stole my heart and is sweet and gentle.  No, it doesn't have rabies. No, it's not going to bite you. No, it's not going to poop on you. I understand you have questions and ferrets are a rare animal to see, so I'm totally fine with stopping to talk to you about them. There's just other people that seem to think they can act as if I have the plague and I find it so child-like that it runs me up a wall. I completely understand a person being cautious due to their lack of knowledge about ferrets, but don't let that make you come off as blatantly rude and ignorant. Rant finished.

I completely understand. Even my close friends make rude comments all the time. Any time our house smells like ANYTHING they attribute it to ferret smell. They literally don't know what ferrets smell like because they have always just assumed that any bad smell was from them - so never learned what they smell like anyway! It's a vicious cycle. It also always hurt me that they said those things knowing how important the ferrets were to me (i only recently revealed that I got Little as an emotional service animal, but I always made it clear they were important).

Anyway, ferret lover solidarity.

This is why I vented on here and not on another site. Because other people here get where I'm coming from. (:

hey much support, and I totally understand. I love telling people off, It's hard when your friends are like that though, I remember my cousin said something a few years ago. It definetly hurts on a different level when its someone close. luckily my immediate family and close circle of friends all like/love my ferrets, they are very supportive.

I'm totally with you. I'm trying to get mine out more so people can see what they're like as pets and companions.  Jaffa and Pandy are great ambassadors.
The few times I've met ferret owners and former owners around here, I usually have to roll my eyes at something they say that they do or used to do, but then I remember some of the mistakes I've made. Of those who have never owned a ferret, the first thing most of them say is "oh, those things stink."  I say mine don't because I don't keep them in a glass box with no ventilation like the stupid pet stores.  (That should be illegal)
As for Yorkies, our papered  Yorkie didn't work out because after 8 months he still wasn't house broke and he barked non-stop in the crate, which meant that we couldn't sleep.  When he started getting rough with the ferrets, he wrote his own ticket. (We found him a home with a nice old lady).  But I would never tell a yorkie owner, "Yorkies are stupid and noisy pains in the butt.  They stink worse than my 8 ferrets put together."  He did stink, too.  2 hours after a bath he smelled as bad as before.

THE DOOKS OF HAZARD

Haha yeah my schnauzer is a stink. No matter what, he still stinks even after having a bath. And my ferrets are very sweet and love meeting people. Annabel is the best because she'll just lay there and make her sleepy faces at people and they just wanna kiss her and take her home. I was in petsmart yesterday and these 2 little girls ran to me and started asking me a million questions about her. They held her and kissed her and their mom was totally ok with it. She was worried they would hurt Annabel because they wanted to squeeze her and hug her. That's when I enjoy taking my ferrets out in public bbecause peoplelike that are open-minded and just want to learn about new pets.

When I first mentioned wanting to get a ferret to my roommate she made her disgusted face and said, "Aren't those dirty and smelly?". Oh it drove me up the wall. We all completely get where you're coming from! If our loving pets are taken care of as they are supposed to be then they smell just like any other animal. All animals have an odor to them, it's just whether or not it's a common pet that our noses are used to. It made me mad yesterday because I took Izzy to visit at my parents' house and my sister immediately, before even having a chance to sniff the ferret said, "you're stinky!" I was like, "umm no, she's not, if anything smells right now it's the rabbit's dirty cage you're sitting right next to!" Of course then two minutes later she couldn't get enough of Izzy's cute cuddliness. Haha. Thought I would add my rant! It is extremely frustrating sometimes to know that people are so judging of something before they know anything about it. It seems to be part of our society and we just have to prove them wrong!!!!