I adopted a silver mitt blaze, female ferret from our local shelter last
Sept., that I discovered was deaf after bringing her home.  I had
volunteered working at the shelter this one day, and was in and out of this
ferret's cage, changing water, food, litter pan, etc.  I talked to "Misty",
and she watched me carefully, and off and on tried to get out of the
kennel.  I took her out eventually, and held her.  She seemed very content
to have me hold, and she was very relaxed and affectionate, giving me
kisses.  Our shelter director alerted me that the markers on her kennel,
meant that she was a "biter".  That was sort of surprising to me because of
the affectionate, non-aggressive way Misty was acting.  As I discovered,
Misty was indeed deaf.  She didn't even hear my noisey vacuum cleaner.  Why
she didn't nip/bite me I don't know, but perhaps not knowing she was a
designated "biter" to begin with had something to do with it.  I wasn't
automatically "afraid" of her, and I was talking to her, so maybe perhaps
Misty sensed I wasn't a threat, so she stayed relaxed.  Misty was a
"stray", and that is why she was brought to the shelter, so we don't know
her previous situation.  It seemed that she was simply afraid, after being
brought to the shelter.  She was seeing new people and other ferrets around
her, and being in a different environment, probably accounted for her
biting.  She didn't appear to be abused, and my guess, is that her previous
owner didn't realize Misty was deaf.  I've heard that the blaze coloration
ferrets tend to be deaf, but Misty adapted very well, and very quickly to
the other ferrets in our household.  She has no problem with taking care of
herself, and if a ferret wants to tease her, and Misty isn't in the mood,
she just screams.  It's her defensive mechanism, and it works rather well
at making the other ferret go away.  Misty always takes time out to seek
affection and interaction from me and my husband, but she does have her
favorite ferret pals here, and acts quite normal in her play and general
behavior patterns.
 
Phyllis B.
[Posted in FML issue 3081]