Hi, This is in response to Cathy's post about never hearing about the good things in ferret ownership. As a fairly new ferret owner, I have been contemplating unsubbing from this list. It is so negative all the time. I never hear of the good stories, just how everyone's ferret is sick and dying or has already crossed over to the rainbow bridge. Its really making me question whether I want to give my heart to any more ferrets. Losing the ones that own me is going to be so terribly hard, I just can't imagine them suffering with sickness and from the posts I have read, it sounds like all my ferrets are going to get ill sooner rather than later and I'm going to lose them. This is highly upsetting for me, and if I had known that there was a very high incidence of ferret diseases in ferrets that (to me) are still really young, I probably wouldn't have adopted my first ferret, let alone the 4 others that I later adopted. So guys, please tell me that there are healthy, non-adrenal, non-insulinoma, just plain non-cancerous ferrets out there. Let's hear some good healthy stories for once. What is the longest and oldest ferret that you have ever owned or heard of? Tell us some stories, some HAPPY stories. BTW, I posted earlier last week about the ferret that had swelling of the neck. Well, its nothing major, he's just too fat for his own good. Vet gave him a clean bill of health. I hope to be owned by this big hefty boy for another 9 or 10 yrs. Alicia [Posted in FML issue 2967]