For the person with the deaf ferret:
 
You mentioned stomping (or slapping on) the floor to teach her to come.  Is
the ferret reacting to the floor vibrations, or your hand movement?  If she
reacts to your hand movements, then you can communicate to her with your
hands, much like a dog trained to hand signals.  You'll just need to decide
what-means-what.
 
If she's reacting to the vibrations on the floor, then you can capitalize
on this to tap/stomp different objects to mean different things.
 
You can also use light flickering to get her attention (obviously not while
she's sleeping unless she's a light sleeper).  Turning the lights on and off
several times can communicate different things to her.  Just decide ahead of
time what these signals are supposed to mean, be consistent (very important)
and use positive reinforcement (rewards) for the bulk of her training.
 
Don't forget to keep the list informed of her progress.  Also, is there
someone doing research regarding the deaf gene in blaze-colored ferrets?
 
-cadel
[Posted in FML issue 1824]