In December i lost my closest animal companion and am still in so much pain from the loss i need a new one. Some might say to wait until the pain stops, but everyone grieves differently and for me i need a new animal to bond with to heal the bond that was broken from losing the last one. The problem is i need to find a new animal and i haven't been able to due to space, size, living conditions, and the animal doesn't meet the requirement. The only animal i can find is a ferret but i can't get that for a while because of money and the people i live with are prejudice. The animal needs to be a small mammal that's easy to transport, this animal needs to be able to accompany me everywhere, this is in potential since obviously you can't take them everywhere, mostly i need to be able to take it back and forth between two houses. Aside from small it needs to be friendly and affectionate and bonds strongly, like a dog or rat and not like a hedgehog or hamster. The cheaper the better and if it'll save me money on vets like a flying squirrel that'd be great. I know it's a long shot and this is a last desperate resort, I've looked everywhere for an animal i can have with no luck so if none can be found i wont be surprised. The ferret really is the closest to perfect so if you can think of anything like a ferret that doesn't smell and is less expensive to keep I'd really appreciate it. Thank you all so much.

Here is a list of animals i cant have, if you can think of any not on it let me know:
guinea pig
hamster
gerbil
rat
flying squirrel
kinkajou
ferret
dog
cat
fox (both silver and fennec)
mice
prairie dog
hedgehog
rabbit
teacup pig
raccoon
skunk
sugar glider
wallaby
opossum of any kind
chinchilla
degu
Patagonian cavy
genet
slow loris
bush baby

(some of these are primates and are on the list because primates are illegal is Maryland, if this is untrue don't hesitate to correct me)