Hi everyone.
 
I've never seen this in the FML, so I thought I'd bring it up for conversation.
 
We have 5 ferrets.  We got our first 2 together.  They are our oldest -
almost 1 year old.  The others are all under 8 months.  Pepper is one of
the 2 oldest.  She is very much loved, and is showered with affection
daily.  They are only in their cage at night while they sleep.  They
have free run of the house.  All 5 get along like true sisters.  Within
the past few months, we've noticed Pepper has been displaying "odd"
behavior.  If any of you have 3 human children, usually you see the same
behavior in the "middle child".  Very emotionally sensitive, jealous,
always looking for attention.  If we discipline her, she literally
POUTS!  She makes sure she's within our view, and sulks, with a heavy
sigh she lays her whole body down flat and she'll glance over at you
with these pathetic "nobody loves me" eyes.  Or if we show one ounce of
attention to any of the others at a particular time that SHE wants full
attention, she'll display the same behavior.  My mother says she needs
therapy.  ;-)  Sometimes when she's just laying there (and she does make
sure its within our eyesight!), I'll walk over to pick her up and she'll
instantly turn into spazo ferret enticing me to play.  I'm sure this is
just her way of getting attention, because none of the other 4 have ever
done this.  They all get an equal amount of attention from us daily.
She just seems to be a little more "emotionally sensitive" than the
others.
 
In a way its so cute, because we see it as an attention getter, and
needless to say it works.  We had some friends over and they really like
all the ferrets and showed them all attention, but all night Pepper
would lurk around them and as soon as they'd make eye contact, she'd
drop flat to the floor and heave a big sigh with the "I'm so neglected"
look.  We usually just rolled our eyes because we were at a loss for an
explaination!  They'd laugh though becuase it *was* cute, and they'd
give in and show her the attention she was asking fo.
 
Anyone else out there have a similar emotionally misunderstood ferret?
 
Mish & Kenny
Pepper (in need of a good therapist), Salt, Ayla, Snowball & Shadow
[Posted in FML issue 1198]