Well, the new family is doing just great, even if they have given me
several heart attacks already!  Pandora, my "most perfect" ferret, seems
to instigate everything!  She has managed to escape from her cage once
already, but we found the problem and fixed it.  Also, she poops in the
middle of the floor rather than a corner or, heaven forbid, going back to
one of the five litter boxes now in the house, and then she scoots her butt
on the carpet to wipe!!!
 
Aaaarrrgghhh!  She likes to pick fights with everyone, too.  And she is the
one who latched on to my 100#+ dog's back leg with her teeth and hung on,
swinging, while he twisted in circles trying to see what was hanging off of
him!  He'd never do anything to hurt her, though, not even to get the
little mutant off of him... this is the dog that once 'nursed' an orphaned
litter of kitten, and who let my daughter sit on him and literally walk
over him (until she got too heavy & I stopped her) and never even raised
his head.
 
Flower is the cleverest.  She's the one who almost got the cage door open
with her teeth, and she's the one who found a hole in the wall we didn't
even know was there until now (where the water pipes to the washe come out
of the wall).  That is getting blocked off today.
 
Tank, the big fat deaf boy, has taken to terrorizing everyone.  He is by
far the most active and playful.  He runs full speed all around the house,
and loves to launch himself at us.  He hits my husband and I at about
knee-level and latches on with all four feet to your pants leg.  My
daughter, who is five, is starting to be a little afraid to walk around the
house when he is out because of this predilection of his.  I haven't
figured out what to do about that problem yet.  Tank is also the only one
who likes to nip (he doesn't hurt, but my daughter is afraid of him).  I
think it's because he's the youngest.  He war-dances the most, too.  And he
loves to wrestle the other ferrets, but he's so darn HUGE that he squishes
them!
 
Poor Moogie is my dearest darling, but although the other ferrets have
accepted him and he enjoys sleeping with them, he doesn't much want to play
with them; he tends to go off on his own when let out, and thrashes them
in short order when they bug him (kind of odd to watch, since he is the
smallest & lightest of the bunch, by far).  He gets tired the fastest, too,
and is still too thin.  Last night I let him stay out of the cage all
night, like he used to before their arrival (I still haven't gotten to know
Pandy, Tank, and Flower well enough yet to do that-- not that I could ever
do that and sleep at all, probably, anyway), and I gave him extra treats to
try to fatten him up some and give him more energy.  He's my frail little
baby that I always worry about.  Nobody gives me ferret kisses!  I hope
it's just because they're not used to me yet!  Even Moogie doesn't want to
give kisses much anymore since I brought home the three hellions, but I did
get some nice kisses from him this morning.  Usually to get fert kisses I
have to coat my fingers with Ferretone.  Hrumph.
 
Once last thing-- we connected our two big cages this weekend with a tunnel
(my husband's weekend project) and it worked great.
 
Vickie
Pandora ("Maybe if I put my nose in the air & stare at her while I scoot
         my  butt across the floor, she'll think I'm even cuter!")
Flower ("That's right, Pandora, keep her occupied while I have some REAL
        fun!")
Tank ("Duh...")
Moogie ("That's fine, just fine, I see how you are...")
[Posted in FML issue 2432]