I have decided that one of my two rescue ferrets is mentally challenged. Cocoa will be doing something and stop and get the strangest look on his face like "What am I doing, where am I going?" When Cocoa runs away to ferret a treat, he often runs to Sparky's hidey-hole instead of his. When he figures out what he did wrong, he will finally go to his hidey-hole and drop the treat. But the deciding factor in all this is his use of the litter box. After one year of litter box training, he uses the litter box almost 100% of the time. He just forgets one small detail about 50% of the time--he is supposed to step inside before he puts his paws on the side of the box to use it. My first ferret was a rescue who had been stressed out for most of his life before coming to live with us. Within a half hour of getting him home, he bit me good and hard on the arm. Most of you know how ferret bites can hurt. I don't remember if he drew blood or not, but I'll never forget that bite. Nor will I forget getting bitten by the cocker spaniel that got scared by another dog when I was holding him. Even though he missed the major blood vessels in my wrist, I did need antibiotics. But my worst bite was a cat bite. Even though she had had all her shots and had been caged for a month in an effort to tame her, she got scared and she got me good on the index finger. All four puncture wounds in my finger bled well, but it took 3 days of IV antibiotics, 15 days of antibiotic pills, finger soaks, several holistic medicines, and God to get my finger back down to size and usable. That cat loves to be petted now, but we are still wary with her. She still scares easily. Moral: Beware of stressed animals and deep puncture wounds. Nancy [Posted in FML issue 5019]