I have decided that one of my two rescue ferrets is mentally challenged.
Cocoa will be doing something and stop and get the strangest look on his
face like "What am I doing, where am I going?"  When Cocoa runs away to
ferret a treat, he often runs to Sparky's hidey-hole instead of his.
When he figures out what he did wrong, he will finally go to his
hidey-hole and drop the treat.  But the deciding factor in all this is
his use of the litter box.  After one year of litter box training, he
uses the litter box almost 100% of the time.  He just forgets one small
detail about 50% of the time--he is supposed to step inside before he
puts his paws on the side of the box to use it.
 
My first ferret was a rescue who had been stressed out for most of his
life before coming to live with us.  Within a half hour of getting him
home, he bit me good and hard on the arm.  Most of you know how ferret
bites can hurt.  I don't remember if he drew blood or not, but I'll never
forget that bite.  Nor will I forget getting bitten by the cocker spaniel
that got scared by another dog when I was holding him.  Even though he
missed the major blood vessels in my wrist, I did need antibiotics.  But
my worst bite was a cat bite.  Even though she had had all her shots and
had been caged for a month in an effort to tame her, she got scared and
she got me good on the index finger.  All four puncture wounds in my
finger bled well, but it took 3 days of IV antibiotics, 15 days of
antibiotic pills, finger soaks, several holistic medicines, and God to
get my finger back down to size and usable.  That cat loves to be petted
now, but we are still wary with her.  She still scares easily.  Moral:
Beware of stressed animals and deep puncture wounds.
 
Nancy
[Posted in FML issue 5019]