> From:    Kevin Woodyard <[log in to unmask]>
> Subject: Casper nails human
>
>      I have noticed some things in my ferret that are starting to make me
> wonder if he wasn't abused at somepoint in his life. When he comes out of
> his cage after a nap he is hesitant if your standing there, and many times
> he will go right back in until you leave. He also seems to be real leery of
> bare feet. I mean real leery. I think given the chance he'd bite you a good
> one. The other thing I have noticed is that he shivers like crazy after you
> pick him up. I may be way off base about this but It really looks like I
> could be right.
 
Actually, this sounds like pretty typical ferret behavior to me. We have
four ferrets, all but one of them we got as kits, so we know they weren't
subjected to any abuse. Kiki and Mulberry get totally freaked out whenever
we come into their room. They dash into one of their tunnels or other
hiding places, poke their heads out to check us out, then scamper off to
another "safe" place to take another peek at us. We just stand there
saying reassuring things like, "Silly ferrets, it's just me." until they
finally decide they recognize us and come out to play.
 
Also, Kiki tends to shiver a lot when we pick her up, especially if
she's just woken up. Penny, on the other hand, is very calm, and just
looks at us when we come in and continues with whatever she was doing.
We just adopted Kit, so we're still learning his personality, but they
are all very different.
[Posted in FML issue 1126]