For those of you who have visited my deaf ferrets pages and who have known Ping of Ping and Pong, my deaf ferrets ... I have some sad news. Pongs' brother and soul mate passed away last weekend. Ping was six years of age, and had battled many GI problems much of his life so it is not a shock to us that he passed away. He had extensive neural crest defect as many of you also know, so he actually made it to a good age. For those of you who aren't acquainted with Ping, he is one of the two original ferrets that I bought my husband six years ago and introduced to my autistic son, Sean. I found out quickly that both Ping and Pong were deaf and so began my crusade to educating people about deaf ferrets as well as neural crest disordered ferrets. I felt alone when I found out in 98, and I did not want other to feel alone as well. So I shared both of them publicly. Ping helped my son get attached to ferrets. But to me the biggest contribution he made to life was that he was our therapy ferret. He made numerous handicapped children very happy over the years when he was younger, and he loved it so. If you want to see Ping, you can go to my webpage below and scroll down the index to the deaf ferrets page and to "Pings Errant Bull". He was buried with his favorite stuffie (he was a stuffie-holic), the red, bull beanie baby. Pong is doing unexpectedly well, wonderful in fact. He detached himself from his brother a bit in the last weeks and he also said good bye to him once he passed. Both things made the world of difference and he doesn't seem worse for the wear. Ping was a great joy! I'm happy for all the years with him. Although I'll miss him and it's sad, I'm so very glad he's at peace. Wolfy http://wolfysluv.jacksnet.com [Posted in FML issue 4685]