Thanks again to everyone who has posted or mailed suggestions about
Scooter's biting behavior.  He's getting a little better; the punitive
biting has been reduced to occasional nipping or just touching my hand
with his teeth if he's REALLY excited and too busy to be picked up and petted.
 
A couple days ago I got tired of pain therapy, which wasn't working, and
got the Super Soaker out of the closet.  Now when he bites I just say No!
and squirt him.  This gets his attention right away but doesn't make him
mad.  Of course, he gets really excited, which makes it necessary to play
carefully, but it seems to work  better than the flick-on-the-nose method.
 I've given up entirely on the flicking and I'm just trying to talk to him
gently after a verbal reminder and squirting.
 
The downside of the squirtgun method is that he quickly learned to
recognize the source of that nasty stream of water and his behavior isn't
quite as good when I'm not holding the gun.  All  in all, tho, he's
improving.  I think the big issue is that he wants more attention, so I'm
trying to spend more time with him.
 
I would also be very interested in any statistics or sources I can
reliably point to when defending ferrets against people who don't know
about them.  I got an email message from my brother in San Francisco after
I got Scooter warning me to keep my fingers and toes away from his face
and how California Fish & Game is concerned because "apparently they can
establish pretty easily in the wild down here."
 
Needless to say, I straightened him out on this point, but all I had to go
on was material from the FML, little of which is going to carry weight
with a non-owner.  I'd like to have some reliable information to send him.
 
Also: Does anybody have any information on how many dogs and cats reside
in the U.S., compared to 1 million ferrets?  And how many dog and/or cat
attacks are there on children?  Thanks to anyone who has this information
and can post or email it.
 
Obligatory carpet shark anecdote: I came home the other day to find
Scooter on my desk, several hours after he'd gotten into my closet somehow
with the doors closed.  I really don't know how he accomplished either
one, but I'm going to have to  ferretproof a little more carefully :-)
 
Chris and Doctor Indiana Scooter, the Intrepid Adventure Ferret
 
[Posted in FML issue 0786]