Hi folks!
 
Thanks to everyone who wrote to me, on and off list, with advice about
Nietzsche's ouchy.  I would respond to everyone individually, but I got
SO MANY responses, that the task seemed overwhelming.  Please accept my
apologies.
 
The vast majority of responses I got suggested it is most likely a mast
cell tumor.  I can't rule out the possibility of an injury, since I have
no way of knowing what he has been through.  Either way, it isn't life
threatening, and I will be keeping a watchful eye on it until I can get
him to the vet.
 
He is warming up nicely with every passing minute.  This morning he
pointedly informed me the food bowl was empty, in that
bump-you-with-my-nose, run-to-the-food-bowl-and-look-in kind of way.  He
will approach me, caustiously, and only when I am not looking directly at
him.  He loves affection, but is just too shy to ask for it yet, I guess.
He is VERY playful, which I think is a good sign.  Unless he is sleeping,
he can be sparked off into a war dance with just a gesture on my part.
Then he is off, bouncing, spinning, rolling over, jumping on the other
ferrets... Quite the happy boy.
 
He snores.  Sometimes he sounds breathy, sometimes like something hydrolic,
(that mechanical hissing noise,) and sometimes, but not often, he actually
sounds a lot like my ex-husband.  He makes squeaking noises when he dreams.
He is the first ferret I have ever known to make so much noise when he
sleeps.  The others jump and play in their sleep, a fact which is given
away by the twitching legs and ears and noses, etc.  But only every so
often, and not very, will any of them make a noise.  Nietzsche, on the
other hand, almost constantly has some noise coming out of him when he
sleeps.  It is adorable.
 
Melissa Barnes
[Posted in FML issue 3345]