This morning we were startled and happy to see Rico up and about. He
came to the front of the cage and looked at us, weaving his head back
and forth, eager for us to open the doors and let him OUT!

So we put him and all the other ferrets in the carrier as usual, and
put it in the outdoor pen. He got out of the cage with all his buddies.
For a week and a half he's just stayed in the carrier and gotten out
only to eat, poop, and pee. He is a great eater, and I think that is
one of the things that has kept him alive during these crises.

While the other ferrets dashed all over the grass and ran up and down
the wire-and-carpet tunnel, Rico went into the cat-proof food cage and
chowed down.

Then he skittered up the tunnel -- which zigzags up a full story -- and
is now up in my bedroom, probably poop-splatting all over the floor.
He is my one fert who Will Not Use The LitterBoxes. And once he starts
pissing and pooping up there, the others let it go everywhere too. But,
Hey, that is OK, Rico! Maybe this afternoon you'll dance and dook.

Thank you, everyone who helped us with observations and advice.

. . . . . . . . . . .
P.S.,
After I wrote that, it was time for Rico's morning medicine. Then we
took him for a sun bath (the outdoor pen is mostly shaded). I thought
that, after that, he wd want to go to sleep, but off he went, toodling
over the grass, up the ramp, and into the tunnel to go upstairs again.

So I zipped into the house and up the stairs to see what he would do.
He walked and sniffed around up there for a while and then went to
sleep with the others. They are curled up inside a flannel sheet that
I've spread out between the bed and the wall for them.

Of course we know that, since he is old, and this condition keeps
recurring, that one time it will carry him off, but we are so glad
to have some more good time for and with him.

[Posted in FML 6720]