Believe it or not all six ferrets just had their second night together.  It
took months of SLOWLY and GRADUALLY introducing Glueball to the others one
at a time, but this is marvelous.  She still sometimes will just sit there
screaming.  At times it seems like she's just plain lonely, other times she
gets scared if another ferret wants to groom her or sleep with her, but
she's not doing much of it now and seems to soon realize (except the times
when she just wants some extra human reassurance) that she was
over-reacting because she was startled.  This is just plain great.
 
Meeteetse is growing in her fur and is slightly beyond the Drew Carey stage
in length.  She is just going non-stop now.  We'd forgotten how skinny she
tended to be before she became ill, but now we're having to give her some
A/D (not much) to keep her in a reasonable level just like we used to have
to do.  She's just busy, busy, busy!  'Teeteese's the one who wound up
mentioned three times years ago on All Things Considered (NPR) because she
ADORES the voice of their chief science reporter to the point where she
will climb anything to get to the speakers and kiss them!  We're talking
something like worship or at least adoration here.  Steve and I really
enjoy his reports for their content but for her his voice is perfection.
 
Warp is our tiny alpha.  It's so funny when she rolls Scooter who weighs
about twice what she does.  He looks so flabergasted when she does it.
He's a slow, fat Jabba the Hutt imitator and along comes a diminutive
albino who runs circles around him before getting her head underneath and
tossing him on to his back!  Talk about neck strength!  These two are my
favorites to hug and kiss. I know we shouldn't have favorites, but...
 
Ashling has found that she can enter one of the closed closets because the
door doesn't fit quite right and she can climb up to the gap (Boy, can she
climb, and climb, and climb...).  After a while I'll hear scratching and
have to open it, typically to find her right up at the top.  That's
Ashling.  She weighs around 2 pound of solid muscle, brain, and bone with
no room for anything else and will drag socks stuffed with tennis balls up
clothing and on to the shelf (around 6 feet high) in our bedroom closet
when we forget to close the door, and will move daleks (our word -- from
"Dr. Who" -- for the basins they get under so they can dash around blindly)
or other things over to barriers to use to get over the barriers.
 
Jumpstart says to not forget him, since the other five have been mentioned.
Jumpie is our Shy Boy.  He's the very shiest ferret we've ever known, a
good natured soul, who likes to be cuddled as long as it's not for really
long, loves to have his chest rubbed, loves the fingernails of Dr. Vex (one
of the vets at Basking Ridge Animal Hospital) because they are PERFECT for
scratching near his ears, and just plain will not kiss but will nose-bump a
person's lips when he's hugging.  His favorite game is Keep Away and he
says that Cheweasels are perfection on Earth.
 
That's our family for those of you who are new or forgot!
 
Well, I just found out that something I thought was done, isn't.  It turns
out that there are going to be more (at least I heard there will likely be
one more, don't know if they will divide it more than that) NPR spot(s) on
some aspects of one reasearch project Steve is working on (of, I think, six
simultaneous lab projects now).  (Hey, now you know why my work is "support
services" <G>!)  Personally, I am hoping to hear Steve's voice as are his
parents, but you know how modest Steve is so you know he avoided the mic a
lot.  Steve heard about the possible continuation from Daniel Charles.  The
more Steve talks about D.C. the more I wish I'd gotten to meet him since he
sounds salt-of-the-earth and intelligent.  Yes, I know -- it's obvious he'd
be intelligent because NPR reporters have to be -- still, it's great and
I'll bet he's got some amazing reminisences.  BTW, if anyone here isn't
familiar with National Public Radio and their news programs (All Things
Considered, Morning Edition, Weekend Edition) these are pretty well THE
best and most accurate non-print news sources you can find in the States --
at a level with the New York Times and similar top papers so that sometimes
we find one slightly better and sometimes the other.  Your local public
radio stations should carry them, and they DO have websites with the
reports!  I tend to go to the www.npr.org address and then work from there.
Try them; you'll be glad you did.
 
Hopes are sent out to those on the front.
 
Sukie
[Posted in FML issue 2528]