We just got back from Chicago this morning.  LONG LONG trip for four
people and whole mess of ferrets in a van - also took some side trips
through Indiana.  Boy is everyone glad to be back home again.
 
Kelleen, I would be very surprised if a spayed female could mate properly.
There are some other things besides mating that might have happened though.
Bluntly sometimes hobs 'miss' and get a slightly different target - jills
don't usually like this one though - thats supposed to be just an 'exit'.
A jill usually can't be mated unless she is in season and the vulva swells
incredibly large.  The only thing I've seen that looks like a jill in
season is a jill with an adrenal.  There is a vague resemblance to a
prolapsed rectum also though.  I'm not sure that the person you talked to
though would actually know ferrets mating.  They go through all kinds of
odd behavior 'before' mating that might be seen as mating by the
uninitiated.  Hobs do this silly little but dance that could be miscontrued
very easily.  Hobs (even neutered ones) do 'practice' runs on jills,
sprites, other hobs even that look like mating but aren't.  Not sure that I
can answer your question more clearly unfortunately since I don't have a
clear idea of 'what' this guy saw.
 
Sables with whitening faces are not usually a problem.  I don't even know
of what could be a problem that causes a whitening face.  I'm not exactly
sure what you are calling a 'brown masked sable'.  A chocolate?  A Sable
that is more brown than black?  What I'm guessing you are seeing is a sable
(or chocolate) that has a changing mask.  This is VERY common.  A Siamese
pattern on a ferret is supposed to be distinguished by a v shaped mask
running from one eye to the nose back to the other eye.  A ferret we bred
last year and even showed as a standard sable with a broad shaped bar mask
and dark body is now a beautifully marked Siamese with a faint v mask and
very light body and dark legs.  (A Siamese pattern is also called a point
or fine point depending upon how much contrast there is between the body
and the points - legs and tail).  I wouldn;t be concerned.
 
bill and diane killian
zen and the art of ferrets
[Posted in FML issue 1355]