Hi all,
 
My heartfelt condolences to those who've lost a precious fuzzy.  I know
how much that hurts and cry along with you when you've lost one.  Kudos
and my great admiration goes to all those shelter parents and helpers
who've rescued and given a better life to those desperately in need.
Thank you so much for what you've done and are doing.
 
I'm writing to see if any of you have had a similar experience as ours
as we're trying to solve a mystery.  My husband and I have been owned by
numerous ferrets over the years for over 10 years.  We currently have 8
ferrets, three we'd rescued from a family who'd neglected and didn't want
them anymore, and our other 5 have come from pet stores.  Two weeks ago
I fell in love with a little albino girl who took to me immediately as
well, so home she came with me.  Cassie fit into our family almost
immediately and fell into step with our routine with little effort.  She
has been very good for our two old adrenal girls who love her to pieces.
She's made them feel young again and she cuddles with them too.  She has
a great personality, is very outgoing, fearless and personable with both
people and ferrets.
 
Then, all of a sudden, she began acting totally terrified, running from
any kind of sound, even my husband's voice.  She was hiding all the time
and it took us two days and a lot of patience to coax her back into the
open during her play and free time.  We suspect one of two things may
have caused this huge change in her behavior:
 
1) She banged her head a lot, being a wild and crazy baby.  She never
ducks completely when running under low pieces of furniture and she's
fallen a few times as she climbs up on things, like the couch, and then
falls off before we can catch her.  Could she be acting this way because
of some kind of self-inflicted injury?  OR
 
2) We live in an apartment complex where we don't trust one of the
building managers.  We've suspected before that he, or someone, was
letting themselves into our home without our permission when we weren't
there.  We had this happen a few years ago when another one of our
ferrets changed her personality in the same way for no apparent reason.
Finding some things out of place in our apartment confirmed our suspicion
so we reported him, but he denied it and the corporate office backed him
up.  We at least were able to succeed in his losing access to our key.
We've spoken with two other tenant families who've had similar suspicions
but couldn't prove it either.  Time has passed and since he still does
repairs in our building, he may have gained access to our key again.
 
We've ordered and will soon be setting up a motion-sensing camera to
catch him in the act so we can prove our suspicions.  In the meantime,
we were wondering if any of you have had an experience with a ferret
changing their behavior from happy, playful, secure, fearless and well
adjusted to extremely fearful in just a day's time.  If you've had or
heard of a similar experience or have any ideas that you might share
with us it would be greatly appreciated.
 
Thanks so much!
Toni and Robert and our 8 wonders.
[Posted in FML issue 4837]