Cecil was just in for surgery (insulinoma and adrenal), and he's home now
and recovering nicely.  He's being kept isolated from the others in a
separate cage until he heals up, but he's in the same room where the others
are loose.  He was at the vet from Wednesday until Saturday morning.  This
evening (Sunday) we started to let him interact with the others again for a
bit, but for no apparent reason, Psycho attacked him exactly the way he
attacks stranger ferrets.
 
This is not a big deal, and Cecil will be able to defend himself and get
things back to normal as soon as he's fully recovered, but I'm sort of
wondering why, after living together for nearly 5 years, Psycho would treat
Cecil as a complete stranger after only 3-4 days apart.  Mookie and Cocoa
didn't get in on the act, but I got the impression they would have if we'd
not broken up the fight right away.
 
Has anyone had any similar experience with short-term separations causing
ferrets to seem to forget their buddies?  I find it hard to believe that
they'd forget each other after only a few days.  These two have never had
any neck-biting, puffy-tailed screeching fights before, just play wrestling.
 
<-------Stan Siatkowski------<<<        Stan & Terrie in Toronto with
<---Toronto Archery Supply---<<<      Mookie,Cecil,Psycho,Cocoa,Stash
                                                and GROMIT!
[Posted in FML issue 2326]