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]