I've experienced the sleeping-with-eyes-open thing with Illura once, and it scared the living daylights out of me! I heard a little squeak, so I went over to make sure she was ok. Her eyes were half open, and what scared me was when I touched her eyelid she had absolutely no reflex. She was only breathing a couple of times a minute, and when I picked her up she felt cool, like her body temperature had dropped. My heart was in my stomach until she woke up, yawned, and gave me a lool like "hi ma, what are you so worried about?" I think ferrets can go into a phase of sleep that's sort of like hibernation. Let me tell you that I deeply empathize with your scare! Rachel and Illura [Posted in FML issue 2991]