Hi folks! Thanks to everyone who wrote to me, on and off list, with advice about Nietzsche's ouchy. I would respond to everyone individually, but I got SO MANY responses, that the task seemed overwhelming. Please accept my apologies. The vast majority of responses I got suggested it is most likely a mast cell tumor. I can't rule out the possibility of an injury, since I have no way of knowing what he has been through. Either way, it isn't life threatening, and I will be keeping a watchful eye on it until I can get him to the vet. He is warming up nicely with every passing minute. This morning he pointedly informed me the food bowl was empty, in that bump-you-with-my-nose, run-to-the-food-bowl-and-look-in kind of way. He will approach me, caustiously, and only when I am not looking directly at him. He loves affection, but is just too shy to ask for it yet, I guess. He is VERY playful, which I think is a good sign. Unless he is sleeping, he can be sparked off into a war dance with just a gesture on my part. Then he is off, bouncing, spinning, rolling over, jumping on the other ferrets... Quite the happy boy. He snores. Sometimes he sounds breathy, sometimes like something hydrolic, (that mechanical hissing noise,) and sometimes, but not often, he actually sounds a lot like my ex-husband. He makes squeaking noises when he dreams. He is the first ferret I have ever known to make so much noise when he sleeps. The others jump and play in their sleep, a fact which is given away by the twitching legs and ears and noses, etc. But only every so often, and not very, will any of them make a noise. Nietzsche, on the other hand, almost constantly has some noise coming out of him when he sleeps. It is adorable. Melissa Barnes [Posted in FML issue 3345]