Pet Amusement Lair
    By Art Nadler

    Anyone who owns ferrets knows they don't adapt well to being caged up. Take them out - and like a gunshot - they're gone, scurrying under couches and beds, across tabletops and sometimes wedging themselves into obscure places like behind the refrigerator or kitchen stove.

    Wayne and Nancy Wellington have come up with a way for ferret owners to play with their pets and not worrying about them running away. They've invented and patented what they call their Pet Amusement Lair.

    The apparatus is constructed of a series of 4-inch wide non-toxic plastic tubes connected to plastic boxes called lairs. The critters -- which can also include minks, chinchillas, guinea pigs, sugar riders and some reptiles -- run freely through the lairs, which are lined with carpet and hang on the walls.

    "They love to get up in the tubes and slide down into hammocks in the lairs," says Wayne Wellington, co-owner of W&H; Enterprises, the company that makes the Pet Amusement Lair. "They get more exercise and have more freedom to run in the house. I can go out and don't have to worry about them at all."

    The plastic lair boxes come in a variety of colors in two sizes. The 15 x 15 x 18 inch set of three boxes and tubing with connecting plastic tubing sells for $210, Wayne Wellington says. The smaller plastic boxes measures 12 x 12 x 12 inches and sell for $150 with the tubing.

    The Wellingtons made their first Pet Amusement Lair 10 years ago. They came up the concept after watching their ferrets and cats run through some carpet tubing a friend brought home. Nancy then came up with the idea of making the tubes out of plastic.

    Wayne says ferrets will develop a condition called Muscular Atrophy if they don't use their muscles. The Pet Amusement Lair allows them to exercise at their leisure all day at their own pace.

    The Wellingtons point out their Pet Lair is endorsed by the Ferret Club of Las Vegas and the 24 Caret Ferret Shelter of Las Vegas. Wayne says he has sold several lairs in Nevada, California, Louisiana, Florida and Indiana. Eventually, he says, he wants to hire disabled veterans to help assemble the tubes and plastic boxes.

    "The animals get exercise, but they are still contained," Nancy Wellington says. "They are able to move more freely around."

    The Wellingtons state on their web site, www.petlair.com, that the Pet Amusement Lair will free a pet from being behind bars in a regular metal cage. But most of all, they say, it will be a lot of fun to watch your pet run and frolic freely in the system around the house.

    For more information contact:
    Wayne or Nancy Wellington at W&H; Enterprises, 2248 Raymond Lane, Las Vegas, NV. 89156. Phone (702) 459-5843. Fax: (702) 459-9691.