This is a wonderful "demonstration" of the SND (sleeping not dead)
phenomenon. The video is clear, the home looks great, the ferret is
healthy and pampered, the owner is loving and explains everything
throughout the video. It's very cute (the video of the ferret, not the
guy ... well okay, maybe a little). Never have I seen such a dramatic
example of dead ferret sleep.

I noted that the ferret is a marked white. I'm guessing he/she may be
deaf because of how profound the dead ferret sleep is. Especially since
it's not a youngster. Deaf ferrets tend to pull the SND act throughout
their lives and a bit more than hearing ferrets who tend to do it less
as adults. As kits? Break out the defibrillator.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lCpcYbHPWKc

The worst dead ferret sleep I ever saw happened with my husbands' deaf
ferret Pong (brother of Ping). It was the first time my Scott ever saw
it and it was the first time that I ever saw it to that degree. I will
never forget it.

Imagine a 200lb blue collar guy from Philly crying out through the
house. "Love! Love!  Oh nooo, oh my God what happened .... LOVE!" I
came flying into the room to see my husband on his knees cradling his
kit in his large paws and absolutely panicked. "Do something!!!" So I
grabbed Pong who flopped over in my hand like a wet dish rag despite
the yelling (we didn't know he was deaf yet) and all of the jostling
about. I was stunned. I began to tickle him, then briskly rub him,
and then pinch him. Nothing. It was so hard to recall what to do in
an emergency like this because I looked up and saw tears welling up in
hubby's eyes. My gut did a complete summersault then I felt a huge lump
forming in my throat. I shouted to myself in my head, "must ... not ..
look". I quickly put my husband out of sight and mind and returned my
attention to Pong. I told Scott he was still breathing. So I shouted
for him to quickly get our shoes and the car key's so we could make a
mad dash to the vets.

Oh yes, and the kids! Let's not forget the humans! Of course true to
form, Sean started pulling his usual Rainman act. As we gathered him
up to go, he screamed and flapped his hands. Then he did the all too
famous dead drop on the floor that so many autistic kids do. The
dreaded dead drop. What a mess. As usual Chet stood pitifully by
feeling ever so helpless when Sean had meltdowns or crisis. Now I
had TWO dead kids. Two dead kids, a crying husband, and a wide eyed,
frozen Chet.

You know, I honestly don't remember what happened next because I shut
all of the chaos around me out of my mind. I was thinking only of Pong
and getting out that door, into the Izuzu, and to the vets. The next
memory I have is us leaving. Everyone was out of the door, getting
into the car, and I was close behind. I don't remember when and where,
but at some point before we made it to the vets, Pong revived. He
picked his head up wearily and tried to pry his eyes open as he became
conscious of the strange new smells and surroundings in the garage.
I told everyone to stop and tried to figure out what was happening.
Not only was he conscious but now he was sniffing madly and thrashing
aboutin my hands to get down.

I tried to grasp what in the hell, in the HELL... had happened. He had
been ... asleep?! We couldn't even begin to wrap our minds around it.
"What do you mean he was asleep? He's OKAY?!", hubby asked. Relieved,
I grinned and replied, "Oh ... he was in a dead ferret sleep!" Still
upset he could only hear part of what I was saying, "But I thought
you said he wasn't dead ..."

"No, sleeping not dead!"

[Posted in FML 6467]