Hello again all,
 
thanks to everyone for their comments about "Balin's Butt" and the
sneezes.
 
We are pretty sure that the sneezing must be/have been a cold.  Balin
is sneezing a lot less but Danielle is now sneezing!!
 
Concerning the protruding rear-end: We switched over to a recycled
newsprint based litter.  The swelling seems to be getting better for
the moment.  We have also put Betadine antibacterial liquid on him as
well.
 
Concerning introducing the new baby to the adults: We have been very
lucky with Balin.  After the first day, he started terrorizing the
adult females (well they love it too, actually).  His favorite game is
to chase them around and leap on their backs to get rides.  He is also
more precocious than the females were.  It took Fili and Kili a long
time to learn to get off of the bed.  Balin, after one day, actually
leaps off the bed, arms akimbo!  He even jumped off the bed and leaped
on top of Kili (visions of really bad western movies apply here).
Hopefully he doesn't turn into Balin the Big Bad Boy.
 
Concerning Landlords: Yikes, we live in an apartment were the lease
says "ABSOLUTELY NO PETS".... well, in this town, if there is
actually a place for rent, you don't quibble about carpet color...
Anyway, I don't put fuzzies in the same category as dogs and cats.
Ours stay caged while we are away and get 3 or 4 hours of supervised
play when we are home.  This gives them plenty of excercise and solves
alot of the problems concerning escaping or apartment damage.  To deal
with the surprise visits from the landlord, we keep the ferret condo
in a large walkin closet (their asleep all day anyway) and only let
them romp in the back rooms.
 
Well this is getting long-winded,
 
Cheers to all
 
Edward, Danielle,
Kili ( can I just crawl into your sweater and groom myself?)
Fili (scratch, scratch,  huumm, how do I get over this pet barrier?)
Balin ( huff, huff, wait up guys,  I'm not done jumping on you!)
[Posted in FML issue 1101]