Pardon me if this rambles a bit, but I am a little up in arms over a mess I
have gotten my (our) self into.  We have had Jasper (male sable) for three
months now (he is 5 months old).  We have managed to break him pretty well
of most of his bad habbits, blah, blah.  Anyway, we have always know
eventually we would want another ferret.  A little over a week ago, we went
the pet store for supplies, and found an adorable albino male (same age as
Jasper).  We nearly bought him on the spot, but convinced our selves to
think about it a bit.  The pet store let us bring Jasper out to see if they
would get along.  Not too bad, the play seemed a little rough, but hey,
there are ferrets aren't they.  So we go home that night to think it over
and decide against it.  A few tears of regret, but we were ok, I thought.
Jasper seemed to get depressed a day after, and slept nearly a whole day
with out playing at all.  I called the vet, thinking he may have gotten sick
from the pet store.  We decided to just watch him for a day or to see if he
came out of it.  He did, and everything was back to normal until today
(saturday).  Went into another pet store intentionally to avoid seeing
ferrets, when low and behold there was a whole bunch of them.  Being the
suckers we are, we were at the cage in a minute looking over all of them.
Found a 10wk old female (not yet spayed) that was priceless.  They called
her a saphire sable (cross between an albino and a regular sable), never
heard of this before, any truth to it??  Anyway, we pretty much had
ourselves convinced to go home and think about it, then the owner says, why
don't you take her home till monday and see if you want her.  Dumb, Dumb,
Dumb, of course we said yes.
 
Here's what the past few hours have been like.  Jasper spends quite a bit of
time chaseing her and biting her pretty hard about the scruff of the neck.
Hasn't bit hard enough to break the skin, but has gotten a few
squeeks/wimpers out of her.  We break it up before it gets too rough... She
has pooped all the way across the room.  Couldn't stop playing long enough
to sit still while she took care of business... She bites so hard that she
has drawn blood on me at least five times.  Many other times that nearly
drew blood... Just a few mintues ago I went to check on my wife and the two
carpet sharks, what mayhem!
 
Ok you all get the picture, now I'll get to my questions:
 
1).  Have I (we) totally lost our minds!?!?!  (you don't have to answer
     that one we all ready know).
 
2).  Are ferrets ok by themselves?  One of the main reasons we are
     considering getting this ferret is so Jasper will have a playmate.  If
     we decide against it will Jasper be happy by himself?
 
3).  Is this level of roughness normal?  Is Jasper just being a "guy", or
     is he upset that we brought another ferret into HIS home?
 
4).  Any tips for breaking her biting?  We've been doing the usual little
     thump on the nose, firmly saying no, etc.  We missing anything?
 
5).  Anyone else agonized over something like this before?  We really want
     her, but just aren't sure.  I was out of school all summer and was
     able to work with Jasper extensively.  I go back to school next week
     and won't have nearly the time to work with the little girl.
 
Sorry about the rambling, we really have gotten ourselves worked up over
this.  One other thing.  If we decide no and bring her back, is it harmful
to her and Jasper?  They will have spent two days and two nights together.
Will they have trouble separating?  AAAAAAHHHHHHH !!!!!!
 
Brett & Missy Lapham
and Jasper toooooo   Do I get a sister or what?!
 
P.S.  Just found them curled up together under the couch!  EEEGAD!!!
[Posted in FML issue 1671]