Dooks to all on the List! I hope everyone is having a great holiday season. Good thoughts and candles lit for those who have crossed the bridge. We decided to be nuts and take our five ferrets with us to holiday with my parents in NC. Normally, wouldn't be difficult but under the following circumstances made the whole trip very interesting indeed. We get an animal carrier, load up the fuzzies with their corner pan, and one of their towels (they love sleeping in/under a bath towel). Cool beans.. no problem. Let them drink at each stop, take one out to play.. whatever. Then the timing belt SNAPS and the car doesn't move. Fortunately, the tow truck wasn't too far away, and we had road side assistance on our insurance (another compelling reason to have cell phones!). So, the good ole' Cajun guy takes us and our car to the garage, set us up at a nearby hotel. He says "don't worry 'bout dem animals..dey's part of da family, eh." (My best effort at imitating a Cajun accent in text). We check into the hotel room after negotiating a price that's reasonable. Well, we sneak the ferrets in...so what do we do? Set them loose in the bathroom...which they decide is a wonderful place to poop all over, despite having a corner pan. I grudgingly clean it up (don't want to leave a mess...). Found out a great way to give ferts water while not using the bottle, and not leaving a mess in whatever room is being used... Its sort of a "duh" but here goes: put them in the bathtub, plug it, and fill with some water for them to drink. My fuzzies are able to get out of the typical hotel bathtub...so no problem there. They actually did pretty good. The human kids went to get some continental breakfast...they were asked "Do you have any pets?" They blessedly said "No". Just before the car was finished, hubby came over and put the fuzzies in a suitcase and snuck out of the hotel with the fuzzies. Whew! So, I'm checking the room, and what do I find? Someone else's under wear and hand lotion...looks like the housekeeper didn't do a great job of cleaning the room....I complain in front of the regional manager who was doing a site inspection...anything that the ferts could have done is superceded by that little find...during this conversation the house keeper comes out and asks if the above mentioned items are mine...I told her absolutely not, they were left by a previous customer...EWWWWWWW! Got out of that one.... So, on to grandma's house....the fuzzies love having a whole room all to themselves. I did learn that the mixture of fuzzies and brand new carpet is potentially bad. JoJo decided that the whole huge bedroom wasn't enough for him and dug a hole through the carpet trying to dig out of the room....will have to pay back mom for that one! One problem...the alpha ferret, JoJo, is getting listless...and not as active as usual. A little history here...when the fuzzies get let out for their daily play, JoJo heads for the cat food bowl and spends time munching on that...I figure he just loves cat food as a treat. Not so...He went on a hunger strike! Poor little guy...once I figure this out, I get some of the cat food from my mother's pantry and give it to JoJo...he chows down! So, the little guy has a preference to cat food for his meals...much happier now that he isn't so hungry! I felt so terrible for not recognizing this in the first place...I did see him take a bite or two of the regular ferret food (they get Kaytee ferret food). So, off to the store to get high quality cat food...found a small bag of Iam's Kitten..JoJo just loves it! happy ferret now! Fortunately the trip home was uneventful. I did notice something interesting...one of our newer fuzzies, Pepper, is rather aggressive when it comes to eating...he will chirp and bark if other ferts are trying to "share" the food bowl. I actually had to separate him from the others so they could eat in peace. I fed him in the bathroom. I do realize that he is vying for alpha and regularly challenges JoJo for the position. Is this aggressive behavior a part of the "alpha wanna be"? Or is it just a matter of his personality. He will work to steal treats from the other ferrets as well. He's usually a sweet loving ferret to me and the other humans in the family...loves to give kisses, and play and all of that...just aggressive around other ferrets. Well, happy holidays to all! --Julie [Posted in FML issue 3281]