Ello All
 
I seem to be miscommunicating with my Def ferret.  Or she's
miscommunicatiing with me.  Take your pick.  Now Maya is a biting Def
ferret.  I've been able to semi teach her that isn't to Kosher.  But as I'm
a wimp I still use a single glove when fully handling her and when I play
with her it's usually with a very large towel.  Now Maya loves to ruff
house.  She can usually prod Penny into a good couple of hours of running
around the bed room, nipping, jumping playing tag and all.  When I come
home Penny is almost always all tuckered out and just wants nice snuggles
and all those scratches that a human hand can do so much better then anyone
else's.  This isn't the case of for Maya.
 
Maya wants attention, but she's still skittish about touching.  I can
usually pet her a couple of times (bare handed that is), before she turns
around ready to nip me.  But Maya loves to play with me.  As I want her to
get all the attention that Penny gets I'm always willing to give a helping
hand... or a helping towel, blanket, well you get the picture.  Once Maya
gets revved up she's almost impossible to turn off.  At some point she will
start leaping into my lap, or start leaping up into my hands.  I'm
astonished that such a small ferret can leap so high.  But the bad part is
that she leaps and proceeds to bite and bite hard!  Most of the time I'm
lucky that I keep a single glove on me and that's the hand she leaps's onto
and digs in so to say.
 
Now this always leads to me grabbing her by the scuff of the neck, resting
her body across my chest (so she can feel me say "NO") and me using the
hand sign for "NO" as well.  If I let her go immediately she'll do it
again.  Most of the time I end up having to put her in the "time out cage"
and let her settle down (BTW- Penny always wants into this cage as it's an
"Off Limits Place" that only Maya seems to get to spend time in).  This
weekend when she started doing this I went into her psycho leaps I started
the cycle again but I really felt dishearted about it as the look on her
face just seemed to me, "Hay, don't you get what I'm trying to tell you?
I like it ruff and fun and tuff and all!  Ya big stupid Twit!"
 
I really feel frustrated, the two of us are not communicating right if you
ask me.  Anyone had a similar circumstance?
 
Thanks,
 
Jeff
[Posted in FML issue 3102]