A friend and I volunteered at a local ferret rescue. Someone turned in two gorgeous male ferrets - one was a nipper, the other a "bad biter" named Butch. My friend happened to be there, and took one look at the nipper, and had to have him ... but was terrified of Butch, so she called me, the die-hard optimist, and I agreed to take the "bad biter". She brought them both over, in a carrier. As I opened the carrier, Butch chomped onto my finger and sunk his teeth in .... we got him off by gently pressing on his jaw, and cleaned me up, called a doctor who promptly put me on antibiotics. Two days later, I was talking to him through the bars of his cage, when he lunged and got my nose - there I was, trapped through the bars of the cage, with a ferret hanging on .... now I had a painfully sore finger and nose - my whole face hurt for days !!! (?) I needed those antibiotics those first two weeks! Once we figured out his problem (two adrenal tumors pumping out testosterone - 2 /12 times the upper limit for an unneutered male according to the Tennessee panel) - and he had surgery - his hormone levels dropped, and he blossomed into the greatest, most loving ferret - he became my #1 fuzzbutt, lived another 5 years ... still my favorite till this day. Oh, and to celebrate his new personality, he got a new name that better described him .... Dooker. [Posted in FML issue 5016]