Hello ferret friends. I am proud to introduce my new baby girl Zira. For any new FML ers I m owned by Pippin 4 yrs. old MF sable male, Merry-2 yrs. old very dark sable Path Valley female, & Zira-12 weeks old cinnamon w/white chest female. Although I m not sure of her coloring the vet said a cinnamon but she has no mask and the insides of her legs & chest are white. We live in NE Ohio. Zira is a bundle of energy and is loads of fun. I ve been poking fun at Pippin calling him her nursemaid. He really is my gentle giant, letting her dance on his head & bites his ears or back or anywhere else she can clamp down it s like a goldfish battling a great white! He teaches her how to dook & dance and get into trouble. Merry usually watches them with a superior look saying I dare you to try that on me! Everyone has been getting along wonderfully and we ve been having a great time but today I got some bad news. I ve just returned from our check up/shots veterinarian visit. Everyone had a clean bill of health until Merry s body examination. The vet found a lump at the bottom near her abdomen. So we had her x-rayed. The first 2 attempts didn t show up anything so then she did a radiology with that gel on her belly. The growth didn t show up very well (just a faint outline) and this was her analysis: Found an irregular soft tissue mass (2 x 2 x 1 cm) caudal (spelling?) abdomen and then she wrote cranial to header. My vet recommended putting Merry under and using a needle taking some cells from the growth to determine what it was, or to monitor it for 3 weeks and determine whether we need a biopsy. She said that it could be an irritation that caused some swelling near her bladder, maybe a swollen lymph node in an irregular place, or it could be some tumor hopefully benign. I made an appt. for June 22 to have Merry checked again and possibly take the samples with a needle. I wanted to get some feedback before I made any decisions and can make my appt. earlier if need be. Merry hasn t shown any signs of being in pain and eats/drinks/poops/plays well. She does sleep a little more than Pippin & Zira and she s an independent princess. I am very worried about my little girl and would appreciate any advice. Best wishes to all with sick or lost furkids. Trish ~ Merry, Pippin & baby Zira [Posted in FML issue 3801]