About a month ago, I wrote asking for advice when one of my fuzzbutts, Scratchy, decided to go AWOL. Sadly, he never found his way home despite my efforts. At first I thought the worst, since my home backs up to woods full of other critters, it is winter and snowy up here in New York and Scratchy lacks all survival skills except cuteness and the ability to sneak into ANYTHING. However, my 5-year old daughter, Sophie, explained that Scratchy is fine and just decided to go on vacation. She described, repeatedly and in excruciating detail, Scratchy taking a little stick and tying to it one of the 1000's of socks he has stolen, throwing in a cheweasal, some food and one of his toys, and taking off for the airport to smuggle onto a southbound plane! We also have described the shrieks of surprise from the lady who sat next to him, and how Scratchy calmly explained that he is NOT a rat or any other type of rodent, thank you, and that there is no cause for alarm. Needless to say, this version of events is much more palatable to all concerned! Thank you very much to all of you who offered advice and support when I reached out for help with finding Scratchy, as well as dealing with his depressed cagemate, Itchy! After about 3 weeks, I decided to go to the Yonkers ferret shelter and pick out a new pal for Itchy. Dino (short for Dionysus, due to his champagne fur and burgundy eyes) is very sweet, but has been pretty rough on Itchy. Lots of surprise attacks and attempts to scruff the poor, depressed Itchy with his teeth! Needless to say, Itchy became even more depressed and starting having stomach problems (green, mucousy poo). I called my vet, and she suggested that I separate them for a while until they got used to each other. So, now I have two big cages right next to each other, and Itchy is, after a couple of weeks, back to his old playful self (and as regular as clockwork on Metemucal!). As noted by the other owner of a depressed ferret that sent in a note yesterday, Itchy is a little different - more "attached" to my daughter and I and sometimes a little subdued. But given all the change in his little ferret world he is doing great. Dino is also a happy boy, but he must learn that there is only one TOP FERRET in this house - and my fuzzy-butt could squash him (although I am certain it will not come to that ;-). Thanks again to all who offered advice - and to JoAnn the Shelter-mom, who does great work and is a wonderful person for caring for homeless fuzzies! Best, ASG Andrew Gold [log in to unmask] [Posted in FML issue 5162]