I enjoyed your story and have a similar tale to tell.  I'm leaving out the
name of the pet store because I'm not sure of the actual circumstances
though I am suspicious of neglect.
 
I was living in Rochester with my girlfriend and our three 'rets, Blackfoot,
Cal Sydney, and Floyd.  Before you ask, they were all acquired from rescue
shelters and were pre-named.  Blackfoot and Cal Sydney were about 3 at the
time this story took place and Floyd was almost 1.
 
Floyd was quite a rambunctous ferret.  He loved to pounce on Blackfoot all
the time who was kind of a lump and didn't really want to play with Floyd.
Eventually, Blackfoot would get tired of Floyd antics and, um, well, sit on
him.  That's it.  Just kinda flop on Floyd and hold him down.  In turn,
Floyd would start to SCREAM.
 
At first, we thought Floyd was in trouble until we realized what was
happening.  At that time, we decided it was time to find Floyd a playmate
closer to his age.
 
A few months back, we happened into this pet store who had a female ferret
who was a biter.  We went back to the store to see if the ferret was still
there.  By this time, she was about 6 months old and her biting had gotten
worse.  I can vouch for this because my hands and arms were all bloody after
picking her up.  They were going to send her back to MF but since we were
veteran ferret owners and members of the local ferret club, they GAVE her
to us.
 
We had to bring her home in a cardboard box with holes punched in and put
her in a spare cage.  There she stayed for about a week.  We took her out a
few times a day giving her LOTS of TLC.  After a week, she had calmed down
quite a bit and she took to the other three immediately.  Cal Sydney was a
bit jealous initially, but a bit of Bitter Apple on the new ferrets' scruff
took care of that.
 
Finally it came time to name her.  My girlfiend wanted to name her Camille,
but Butterbutt kept coming out of my mouth (she had a big butt) and it stuck.
 
For various reasons, Floyd and Butterbutt had to be given up and thanks to
Pat Nothnagle of Obidias Ferret Rescue in Brockport, NY, they are now living
very happily in the Buffalo area.  Butterbutt has since gotten over her
biting and is a very lovable ferret.
 
Jeffrey Veiss ([log in to unmask])                   PO Box 5200
Network Engineer                              Princeton, NJ 08543-5200
Corporate Telecommunications                  (609) 419-6141
Bristol-Myers Squibb, Inc.                    (609) 419-7110 (fax)
[Posted in FML issue 2100]