Hi Y'all!  Been lurking & reading whenever I can for the longest while.
Condolences to all of you who've lost beloved fuzzies.
 
Couldn't resist the name thing.  Our sable "Mr." Bean was named because of
her resemblance to Rowan Atkinson's character from the British comedy show
of the same name, and as her papers said she was a he, she got a boy's
name.  Wasn't 'til three months later that we saw a much bigger boy at
the mall petstore with a "belly button" that we realized our tiny gib was
really a sprite.  Now she is just Bean.  She would prolly beg to differ -
she is Bean The Alpha, and Bean The Destroyer of all houseplants left where
she can get them.  She has also been jokingly nicknamed "Beanie-no-weenie",
and Bean the Mean Eating Machine.  ACSL got her name from her habit of
frequent pancaking, and the fact that I was in meteorology during my Air
Force enlistment.  Her name is really AltoCumulus Standing Lenticular, but
ACSL ("Axel") is a little less of a mouthful.  She is an albino, and if
you do a web search for pictures of wx phenomena and see a picture of
altocumulus standing lenticular, you'd know why I named her that.  ACS
was originally named Jezebel by her first two owners, but we thought that
wasn't a very nice name for such a sweet girl.  ACSL is the only one of our
ferts who will come when called by her name, if she feels like it.  Twist
got her name from the fact that she will Twist round and round when she
plays or gets excited; she is also a tail-wagger, snorkeler and
bowl-digger.  She is an adorable, very tiny badger girl who is roaning out
on her rump-end.  I wanted to give Twist a weather phenomena name, but I
couldn't find one to adequately fit her personality.  Which brings me to my
question.  About a month ago, I was in a complete panic when I went to let
my fuzzes out for their morning romp, and Twist was lurching violently
around the cage when I woke her.  I rushed her to the vet, thinking that we
had a seizuring ferret.  They had all had a bit of a sneezy cold (all us
humans had had the flu the week prior), and I didn't realize that Twist had
developed an ear infection that the vet said had traveled up a nerve and
was causing some pretty severe inner ear problems.  She seemed fine the
night before when I had put her in her crate for the night.  I had to
wonder if our woozles caught the flu from us, but the vet said he doubted
it, and "hush, don't say that!" She has been on antibiotics for quite
some time now, and unfortuately, it seems she will probably now have some
permanent neurological effects.  (She has a Stevie Wonder-ish head wag, and
her balance isn't what it was before.) I was wondering if anyone had had
similar problems in any of their ferrets?  I also have unfortunately had
to separate Twist and Bean permanently.  Once Twist got out from under her
quarantine, Bean tried for some very serious neck/throat bites, and I now
keep them totally apart.  (Bean also tried to kill two kittens out of our
cat's previous litter and actually caught two chimney swifts that came
down our fireplace flue, so I have little doubt that she might try to kill
Twist.) Is it normal for a former peaceful cagemate to try to kill one it
senses isn't "right" now?  ACSL will still play with Twisty, if a little on
the rough side sometimes.  If anyone has any answers or suggestions for me,
please email me.
 
Thank you all very much!
 
D. Jones and the Prepositional Poop Squad
 
http://www.care2.com - Homebase for people who care about the Environment!
[Posted in FML issue 2948]