Hi, this is Denise, Rocko's mom -
 
Alayne M. Whaley wrote:
".....  He made a
noise I've never heard him make before and whenever I looked at him, his
mouth was open, as if to show his teeth.  The noise, at first, seemed to me
like short puffs of air leaking from a balloon.  Can't figure out how else
to describe it.  He seemed to be attacking her, and didn't stop the hissing
..."
 
Rocko makes a similar sound.  When he's in a "fighting" mood, he hops
around with his mouth open and makes a repeated "kih kih" sound.
When I asked about this, a few other FML'ers said their little
furries made a sound like that.
 
I have a question about how friendly ferrets tend to be.  Rocko is really
sweet and tolerant - he lets basically anyone pet and hold him, and shows
interest in most pets (tries to play with cats, and is respectful of big
dogs; hasn't met a small dog yet).  He's very calm, too - he showed no
problems at meeting my fiance's entire family at a get-together.  Some
people who've met ferrets before say that he's one of the most friendly
ones they've seen.  So what is the "typical" ferret temperament?  I
know that there are the occasional ferrets who are even snippy towards
their "family," but are ferrets just getting a bad reputation from
the occasional one?  Did I unwittingly "train" him to be unusually calm
and sweet?  If there is a general impression of ferrets as biting, a bit
nasty, and otherwise not very nice, no wonder it's hard to get rid of
FFZ legislation.
 
Finally, Rocko's only 13 weeks old, and he's already 16" long - that's
supposed to be average length for males, but he's still young.  Is he
going to get _bigger_?  He only weighs 2 lbs., according to the vet, so
he's not big that way.  :)
 
Denise,
    Rocko ("I especially like people who have cat treats!")
        and Grumpy (teddy bear hamster who doesn't like "eau de mustelid"
                        up close, for obvious reasons!)
 
[Posted in FML issue 0884]