12th Generation Institute

Remember the children’s game “Chutes and Ladders“? If you landed on a square with a “chute” (a slide), you’d slide back some spaces. If you landed on a square with a ladder, you’d climb up some spaces. It was a simple game.

Chutes and Ladders

Video and computer games, with various levels and choices to make for additional fights or missions, make Chutes and Ladders seem so simple now. But the simple form of the game captured a visual concept that stayed with me and has morphed and grown into the animal sanctuary.

At the 12GI Sanctuary, you won’t move forward or backward, or up and down, on a game board but there are ramps and tubes (“chutes”) and stairs (“ladders”) and gates and doors and levels (up and down, deck and ground, fence and gazebo roof, limbs and trunks). There are hideaways and thickets and groves. And I am always working to create more spaces for the animals. I use whatever I find. It’s a work-in-progress and I’ve only just begun.

Screened Ferret/Cat House

Take a look at the screened cat/ferret house I built – all from reclaimed materials:

- a discarded wood pallet, old fence panels and boards, chicken wire, leftover screen (nylon screen “curtains” on bottom, overlapping in middle of each side, accessible on all 4 sides and underneath; wire screen over chicken wire on top). Mats placed over pallet on floor. Roof can be covered with a tarp for rainy days or shade cloth to protect from sun.

Ferret/Cat House

See lots more projects-in-progress on the Sanctuary Facebook page here.

Below is a photo of part of the back yard south fence.

South Fence

Construction of the South Fence

The south fence is wood post and chicken wire, which is buried in an L-shape inward so the ferrets cannot dig out under it. Along the top of the fence is roof flashing (painted brown) to prevent the ferrets from climbing over. The cats can walk along the top. On the right side of the picture frame you can see a diagonally-situated tree branch. I cut that to size and screwed it into place so the cats can climb from the fence up to the roof of the gazebo.

Gates & Ramps

Below are two more things I built. On the left is an indoor “gate” to a “safe room,” presently used for two new kitties. It’s also made from reclaimed or leftover materials: crossbars are (top) board from pallet and (bottom) cedar scrap board left over from gazebo construction. The rest of the wood (dark) is from a broken down horse fence enclosure. The frame is covered with two scraps of chicken wire left over from the gazebo roof. They are joined diagonally in the middle (since the scraps were diagonal pieces – most people would just discard this stuff).

Indoor Gate-door

Ramps

On the right (above) are some ramps: (1) going from the rear deck down to the yard (primarily for the ferrets) and (2) from the deck railing up to the top of the gazebo (for the cats).

Construction Principle

While some of these constructions will change — I have removed or moved (reused elsewhere) gates and opened enclosures when I’ve added fencing and protections as I expand the compound — the construction principle, developed from that simple chutes and ladders concept, remains the same:

– the compound is like a labyrinth with various levels or degrees of protection: gates within gates, inner and outer areas, open areas, quick hides, escape routes (that is, not out of the compound but into more protected areas – like from the yard to an enclosure or hide or under the steps or the house or onto the deck and into the house).

Some of these levels are for variety and fun, some are for protection.

Labyrinth

What humans do at the sanctuary is just as important as what the animals do. Here’s a sampling.

Direct Animal Work

Once or more daily

compounding, mixing, preparing and/or dispensing doses of medicine

preparing and feeding a liquid nutritional supplement (usually called ferret “duck soup”), sometimes with additional ingredients (such a liquid iron supplement, antihistamine, diatomaceous earth, honey, or fish oil)

washing dishes

cleaning up litter areas & wiping floors where needed

brushing teeth

brushing and/or wiping fur (to remove shedding fur, dander, pollen, dirt, check for ticks, etc.)

Weekly

changing out and laundering bedding and mats

mopping floors

clipping nails

Monthly

pest treating and sanitizing of floors and soil

topical treatments on the animals (for fleas, ticks, worms, mites);

cleaning (and treating) ears.

Other Work (construction)

Fencing

digging post-holes & putting in posts

cutting posts to uniform height & screwing/nailing in cross-beams

stretching chicken wire and attaching to posts and beams

splitting slabs of cement or cinderblock, folding chicken wire at bottom, digging shallow trench, and covering chicken wire with slabs/rocks/bricks and dirt/leaves

attaching extra strips or pieces of chicken wire where need along top or bottom or at other gaps, & attaching to existing wire

nailing boards where ferrets may be able to climb out on chicken wire (vertical and horizontal — may also use aluminum flashing, etc.)

attaching dog wire on outside of top beam (predator protection)

Aerial Predator Protection

put in post and rod at center of yard (dig post hole, mix cement in hole, mount post and make vertical with a level; affix rod into top of post before mounting (chisel hole, fill with cement or glue)

erect metal rods or posts onto top of fence (height 8-9 feet above ground) and stringing nylon fishing line across yard in criss-cross manner

Ramps, climbers, cross-overs

construct and mount wood board ramps from deck to ground

attach tree-branch ramps where needed (from deck to ground; from deck to gazebo; from gazebo to fence)

This list could be endless. Use your imagination (and come try out ideas)!

Other

prepare, bait, and set a safe trap to trap an escaped ferret

(Above: Peanut digging under a gate. Bali (a cat) is on the other side, wondering what is moving under the dirt. Peanut worked on this for quite a while. I had to prevent his escape but I let him burrow until he was satisfied. Then I plugged up the hole with stones. I supervise ferrets during their active times and check gates & fences at least twice daily.)

Humans’ Role in a Nature-Based, Animal-Centered Sanctuary

The sanctuary operates on two fundamental principles: nature-based and animal-centered.

Nature-based means providing the animals with a natural environment that permits them to engage in their natural behaviors as much as possible. Animal-centered means the animals dictate the choices (again, as much as possible).

Because most of the animals at the sanctuary come to us as domesticated animals, they cannot simply be “rehabilitated” and released, like wild animals can be. They are dependent upon us to provide their food and shelter.

Most ferrets that come to the sanctuary have been kept their entire lives in cages, allowed out to play only for a few hours a day. It is a new experience for them to explore and enjoy wide open spaces at will. Many have never had the option to choose where they want to sleep or when they want to get up and move around.

At the sanctuary, we believe that these choices rightfully belong to the animals and the sanctuary is set up for this purpose. Humans are mere facilitators. For the most part, we try not to be major actors in the ferrets’ lives, except in a limited manner where desirable or necessary. In other words, the ferrets largely play by themselves or with each other, not with us. We may facilitate their play (by helping them find each other when the expanse of the yard is too great for them to track each other at first), we may (if they “ask”) play briefly with them (especially if they are more accustomed to human play than ferret play) but we back off and let them engage with each other as much as possible.

We give them food but we also let them hunt. (Ferrets are obligate carnivores, but domesticated ferrets have no sense about what is good or bad to eat, so we monitor this. We have had ferrets become quite expert at hunting bugs and other small critters.)

We have also learned the importance of training them to associate a sound — a clicker — with food in case any get lost.

And we give them loving attention in limited amounts. (Too much human attention makes them too dependent on us and not enough on each other, which is not only unnatural but would make it harder for us to do the other work necessary to running the sanctuary.)

Largely, the ferrets dictate their own schedules, social interactions, and activities.

Dangers: Our Two-Pronged Approach to Safety

But sanctuary life is not always idyllic. There are drawbacks and dangers to our approach. Freedom has risks. Even limited freedom with safety and security measures has risks.

We use a two-pronged approach: (1) we do our best to make the compound safe and secure (escape-proof and predator-proof, regular sanitation measures inside and out), and (2) we help the critters to learn the dangers of nature.

How do we do this? There is no other ferret sanctuary that does what we do and we have many insights to offer in this regard, but compound security, sanitation, and safety is a separate topic we will write about another time.

As to the second thing, ferrets will learn about outdoor hazards simply by encountering the outdoors. We provide a buffer while they learn and we protect them from the biggest dangers.

For example, a ferret does not know that an eagle or owl could snatch it from the ground — which is why we have put up a “safety array” of nylon fishing line 9 feet above the ground criss-crossing the outdoor area — but they do learn to be aware of unusual sounds, and they learn to find cover quickly. A dog suddenly barking loudly or intensely, a coyote whooping or howling, an eagle screeching or owl gurgling or hooting, an animal rustling in the woods — out here at the Sanctuary, where there are few human mechanical sounds, such sounds stand out and the ferrets naturally get alerted when they hear them. Their natural tendency when they hear a strange new sound is to hide. They also learn from each other. If one ferret is more sensitive to sound (or sight) than another, the others will pick up on it and run and hide with him when he reacts.

Many people believe that ferrets are safest in a cage. This really is not true. A cage contains the animal and prevents him from getting into things but it also contains a high level of germs. I have taken in and ultimately lost ferrets who were kept in unsanitary cages so long, they developed (and died from) inflammatory bowel disease.

And because the ferret cannot get out when he wants to, caging also leads to cage-biting and tooth damage.

Free outdoor roaming also has hazards. I had one ferret who contracted a bacterial infection and a parasite from eating a lizard. But that ferret was treated and is alive and well, while I had another ferret who ate couch stuffing and died from it.

The point is that nobody can avert all dangers, whether indoors or out, in a cage or free-roaming. And there is no substitute for monitoring and supervision.

Having said that, however, we never punish a ferret. A ferret engaged in what to her is a natural behavior — nipping a cat who bothers her, chasing a snake or a frog, having a tug of war over a dead mole, digging up new-growing grass, trying to burrow under a fence or gate, getting into foam rubber or plastic bags, or even attacking a new ferret — should never be punished for doing so, even if we don’t like it, even if we know the behavior is unsafe. The best thing to do is silent removal and/or protective measures, and providing alternatives. We have been able to retrain aggressive (even dangerous or feral) ferrets with consistent, regular gentle handling and guidance.

One of the hardest things to deal with when you work this closely with animals — trying to experience things through their eyes and ears and brains — is when an escape or illness or death happens. We believe that every critter in our care has a right to live as natural a life as possible. Still, we do our utmost to prevent harm or suffering but even with all our measures, things happen. When they do, we try to go through the experience with the ferret. We believe this is the best way to honor the life of another and we believe that every creature on earth should be given this respect.

Bini

We know that the Arkhelogy(SM) approach (that we use in the sanctuary) sounds mysterious and cultish. You can read more about it generally here, but we thought it would be good to explain how we use this approach at the sanctuary.

Basically, what it means is that we try to look at everything through the eyes of the animals, but this really isn’t a simple, easy process for most people.

Let me give an example . Say you are fixing breakfast for the ferrets. You have six ferrets to feed and every morning, every ferret is to be given a mayo top filled with a powdered protein supplement mixed with water. It’s early – 6AM or so – and ferrets and cats are underfoot and hungry.

How do you look at the world through the eyes of a ferret (or a cat) at 6AM when all you’re tinking about is pouring water into a dish without spilling it or stepping on a critter … and you’re barely awake?

Many people find this work — seeing through the eyes of another (particularly of a ferret or cat) — very difficult to sustain. Because our approach is animal-centered, it is absolutely required for anybody working in the sanctuary to be able to sustain that while they are here on the grounds.

For example, if you live here and you need your coffee in the morning, you’d better get up 30 minutes early (that means 5:30AM) and brew it in your room. Coffee vapors are not good for animals. (If caffeine wakes you up, think what it can do to small animals.) And you cannot sit around relaxing and taking your time when there are a dozen hungry animals in need of food.

Another thing that is hard for most people is not to project their own emotions onto the animals. This is where the discipline of Arkhelogy(SM) is helpful. It teaches you to practice undoing your assumptions. It teaches you how to observe better and empathize more. And in order to provide the best, most natural environment — that which will enable the animals to use their natural abilities — you need to be able to observe them and feel what they feel, see what they see.