Hi there.  I've been meaning to post these oddities for awhile.
 
My husband was holding two of our fuzzies the other day, one draped along
each forearm, and stroking each head with his hands.  He whispered for me to
come over.  Then whispered that they were purring!  Now I've had fuzzies for
quite some time and have a respectable business of seven (okay, that's puny
to some of you!), so I know all about trembling - when awakening, when
excited, when scared, whenever!  But I swear these two were purring!  No
noise.  Janos told me to feel them while he stroked their heads, and their
little motors were going (like shivering but inside, like little cats).
Then he stopped stroking and they stopped whatevering.  They he started, and
they started, he stopped, they stopped, he started, they started --- like
little cats purring!!!!  Could it be - purring ferrets?!
 
This is weirder.  PLEASE someone help -- it is NOT funny!  My cat is fifteen
years old and weighs eighteen or more pounds.  He's getting a bit stiff, but
seems happy enough.  He has a full human-sized window seat on the south side
of the house - which Janos built to read in, but since there was nowhere to
feed the cat on the floor (due to seven cat-food loving ferrets) he got the
window seat.  He's always been very litter-box behaved, excepting once long
ago when he went on my dad's bed, after I snuck the box away in hopes he'd
learn to go outside, after my dad told me absolutely not to sneak the box
away...
 
Mr. Sir Duke Withropt Waverly Wellington, III, tolerates the ferrets and has
even been ridden a couple times by one in the past, the same one that would
also run underneath him around the house.  He gives a lazy toothy snap at
them when disgruntled but has had every opportunity to bite and doesn't.
They even play together and have been known to cuddle.  But Welly is
downright fat, can't snack, and just watches the ferrets getting their
ferretone, raisons, and LOPE (the prized cantaloupe).  He's heavy as a pony
and often watches them get lifted and cuddled, while he stays aground.  I
try to give him attention, but he's gotten so big and snores so loud that
occasionally I close my bedroom door at night until I hear him howling, put
my earplugs in, and open the door feeling guilty.  Janos has never liked
cats and Wellington can't stand men that wear boots - practically all men -
so they walk far around each other.
 
A few months back an extra large REALLY STINKY ferret poop appeared on a
newspaper in a corner of the ferret room (can anyone truly say they've
litter trained more than three?!).  This happened a couple more times until
Janos really let fly: "That cat's pooping all around!" he yelled.  I gently
countered: "That isn't altogether accurate, darling.  He's going on the
ferret's paper." There's also a paper beside the toilet when the fuzzies are
out (they ignore the cat litter box on the other side of the toilet - the
family that poops together...) He's been going on this paper now!  "That
cats going all over the bathroom," groans Janos.  "No darling, I gently
chide, "He's going on the paper".
 
This kept up until the time I tried closing Mr. Wellington from my bedroom.
Then a REALLY STINKY cat poop appeared on the floor IN FRONT OF the toilet
(no surprize from the ferrets, mind).  This happened a couple times, usually
when I closed my door, during which I groggily staggered in and, SQUISH...
nothing grosser than cat poop.  I now keep my door open and this has
improved, but the problems are still on the rise.
 
I clean the three ferret boxes each afternoon/evening.  Yesterday they
smelled to high heaven.  The cat had backed into the ferret cage (no small
feat!) and pooped in one of the boxes!
 
The kicker is, he is pooping more often and much smaller volumes - disguising
them as RANK ferret poops.  Corner pooping in bathroom and ferret room is
becoming his norm.  I have even caught him gazing longingly up toward the
third floor of the townhouses (the three T's take up an entire wall), where
the nice fatty ferret chow is always out (he only gets fed twice a day).  And
he's been squishing himself into a little ferret bed in my computer room.
 
Has anyone else had a cat converting to ferret behavior?  Will I have to
start bringing him to ferret frolics in a giant chest papoose?  Mr.
Lipinski, will he be allowed in the Seattle ferret games?  (He doesn't have
a mask...) Will he end up threading his way into the ferret Townhouses,
getting stuck on the way up?  Help!
 
Am I the first to have purring ferrets and a cat that wants to be a ferret?
Help!!
 
Lynn Mc. and the Gang of Eight, er Seven?, Fuzzies... (and, always, my
Squeeky and his neural tube sibs, Schroedee Boat, and Percy, all dancing in
the ferret-studded stars)...
[Posted in FML issue 2127]