Good Morning all! Hope you're having a great day with your fuzzies. Jasper and Willie, our little sable boys, now 14 weeks old, are doing great. Complete little terrors, they are! Jasper is the slightly smaller one, and tends to be the more energetic and fiesty of the two. We're still wondering which is going to emerge as the Alpha male. We keep watching the wrestling matches looking for a clear winner... there just isn't one. ;) (The big laundry basket with the biodegradable packing peanuts from the ferret store, and the ferret ball and attached tunnel -- along with the whap whap whap noises of wagging tails -- makes these wrestling matches more fun than TV!) It's fun to watch their personalities emerge. Jasper is the "nip and run" guy and Willie's a little suck-up! Last night as I was emerging from a nice, relaxing, bubble bath, they of course had to come lick my toes and dance with the towel. Jasper quickly moved from lick to nip, and then BITE! So, while he and I were going through the "no bite" litany, Willie ran to the bathroom litter box (which Jasper still rebels against -- tho, he uses the one in their cage pretty reliably), backs in and squats. Now, if he did anything, it was very minimal. But, he looked expectantly at me for the "good boy, Willie" that he knew was coming, and was VERY proud of himself. <grin> After this interlude, my husband and I proceeded to (over)analyze the nipping incident. To begin with, my husband feels that Jasper doesn't bite him as hard, AND Jasper's tenacity in biting me seems to increase after I've gotten out of the tub, so we came up with a theory: 1st, when I take a tub and they're in the bathroom, they've generally been out and playing, non-stop, for an hour or so and are getting hungry again. (They never actually eat the food that we leave out for them when they're playing, they simply stash it for later!) Jasper gets nippy and cranky when he gets hungry -- I can relate!! and 2nd, and just as importantly, the bubble bath smells fruity! So, we think maybe Jasper is getting confused ... smells good, hungry, ooops! it's Mom!.... lick lick lick, hmmm, smells good, hungry, chomp... oops! did it again! (Meanwhile, Willie's in the litter box, with the "look at me Mom! I'm a good boy!" rouse.) On top of all of this, we also came to the conclusion that we need to actively spend more time with Jasper. As it is, he's the one that wants to run and play the whole time he's out. We feel that he may be training us to let him have his own way by being the squirmy, nipping little boy that he is. So, from now on he'll have to endure being held and petted just a little more. How's that for Ferret Analysis?! Well, I have to go and spend time with Jasper now... and of course, watch Willie pretend to poop. Have a great day! ;) [Posted in FML issue 3146]