Dan, our 'Chopper the Ferret Helicopter was a very dark blaze with garnet
eyes.  (For those not familiar with stones, rubies are often more of a
pink-red and garnets are often more of a dark burgundy-red which is
exactly the color her eyes had.)  Beautiful girl and very athletic as her
name implied, she loved nothing more than climbing, esp.  when there was
something high above which she could then push over onto her fellows.
Training her was hard, though.  Blazes, pandas and some others are among
the group which carries the Waardensburg (sp?) allele (unless there have
been changes in the extensive research on this syndrome which affects many
mammal types, I gather it's firmly only one allele rather than neighbors).
That's how they get their markings but this same gene also affects the
protocells which develop into some of the structures for hearing and other
things.  It's like the way that in some mammals markedly different
pigmentation between the two sides of the face or head can sometimes also
indicate an increased risk of there being problems with the aortic arch;
again cells which later develop into multiple structures are affected.  In
Waardensburg there is an increased risk for full or partial deafness.
Unlike humans, ferrets aren't as visual as they are aural, so while
training to floor thumps and hand signals can be done and is often
mentioned here, that can take longer, meaning that if the individual needs
nip and "down" training you've got a larger task than with a hearing
ferret.  Basically, you need to be a very, very patient soul, and then
sometimes to find yet more patience hidden under your patience in that
situation.  As you probably have read deaf pets seems to have a greater
chance of being handled badly and winding up in shelters; that's why dog
groups got so worried when a new version of "101 Dalmations" came out
because the first one resulted in a flood of dogs who later wound up in
shelters due to the challenges of training them, and they are more
visually oriented than most ferrets seem to be.  'Chopper was only partly
deaf -- that made it hard to figure out what was going on.  Was she only
ignoring us as ferrets are sometimes wont to do or did she not hear us now
and then?  Finally we learned that she simply could not hear high tones.
She'd put a paw on the speaker's lips when a high voice was used as if
trying to find out what was going on, and would not respond at all to a
range of high-pitched sounds.  A woman in the vet's hospital used to think
that 'Chopper liked her voice since she did this mouth-touching but the
reality was quite different.  Steve has a deeper voice, normally, but he
tends to raise his pitch for ferrets so we both had to learn to go deep
when speaking to 'Chopper.  I recall someone else here talking once about
one who could hear only high tones.  Expression varies with that allele
but the potential for full deafness remains.  That is why so many call for
not breeding those with these markings and for careful placements into
homes with patient people.  If you are up to the challenge check shelters.
If you are purchasing then you might want to bring along things to test
for full or partial deafness, or use singing if you have fine pitch and
voice as some of you lucky people do (jealous, jealous, jealous...).  I
don't personally regard deafness as a defect among species which are able
to cope fine without hearing, but it does create a situation in which
training can be greatly complicated, and among pets it seems to lead to
more abuses and to more surrenders, so I do not think that any look should
weigh more heavily than those possible outcomes.  People too often seem to
do a lot better at coping with their own handicaps and differences (which
we almost all acquire at some points in life) than they often do with
those of others, including critters.  These are things to think about
before acquiring a blaze.
 
Lisette posted that her deaf ones more often don't hit the litter pan and
the others followed suit.  We're having part of that situation now with
many of them responding to Meeteetse's incontinence with less litter use.
Sigh.  Competitive stink laying...
[Posted in FML issue 3113]