Awhile back we took in a couple of biters.  One of them, Butter, is the
world's biggest scaredy-ferret: when she first arrived, any little noise or
any sight of us sent her running.  She's a lot better, but still skittish at
times.  (Should have seen her the other night when the kitchen smoke
detector went off by accident...  linoleum just doesn't give sufficient
traction!).  And she's still not quite willing to trust humans.
 
Well, after she woke up this morn she seemed to be scratching more than
usual, so I sat on the floor and picked her up to make sure nothing was
wrong.  Nothing was, so I set her down on my lap.  Lo and behold, she
started to fall back asleep across my leg, with her head on my foot!  She
probably would have stayed there, but Fez kept coming over and nudging her
to get up and play, so she finally decided it was easier to give in than
ignore him.  But even then she turned around and gave my hand a few licks
before leaving.
 
Now, I don't think this was necessarily any great sign of affection -
rather, she had just woken up and was probably too lazy to move.  But I
figured it was at least a sign of trust, since she wouldn't have started to
fall asleep if she was still afraid I'd kill her.  (She actually isn't
scared of me anymore, but still...)
 
So, I felt we were finally getting somewhere.  Later, when I went to feed
the fish, she & Fez came over and hung out by my feet.  So, I sat back down
on the floor to be more on their level.  Butter comes over...  lick ...
lick ...  lick ...  CHOMP!
 
Sigh.  Ah well, back to square 1.
 
-rochelle
 
ps - a friend's husband is a professional photographer, so he came over and
did a photo session of the ferrets at my house.  Have any idea what its like
to try and get 5 ferrets facing the same way at once?  Let alone stay
still????
[Posted in FML issue 1458]