Hi. I've been on the mailing list for a relatively short time. One of the things that I really like is seeing stories from others on their pets. Here's an introduction to my family... I have quite a menagerie (nothing like I had growing up on a farm, of course, but still quite a collection for the usual city dweller). I have a large shepherd-lab mix. She is 13 1/2 and quite tolerant of the other members of the family. She saw her first ferret about two years ago when a neighbor got one. She sniffed it and put her mouth very slowly and gently around it. I also have a cat, rescued as a kitten when I was in college. She spent most of her formative years in our college apartment and didn't meet too many people and no other animals. She's really skittish and does not like other animals. It took her a long time to get used to the dog (who stayed with my parents while I was at school). She was almost 5 when I got Jester. It's been more than a year now, and she still doesn't like either of the ferrets. (Cocoa joined the family last February.) I have wanted a ferret since I was in high school some 10+ years ago and my neighbor had one. While Christmas shopping, I was walking around the mall and saw that one of the two resident pet stores was advertising ferrets for sale. They had one on the counter that hung out in his basket and played with customers. (This one was eventually adopted by Shelley, the store manager. She brought him into the store during the day so he could be around her more of the time, and he would get used to being around people. Sadly, the ferret was stolen from the counter and never recovered.) I began visiting the store whenever I was in the mall and soon picked out one of the babies as the one that I wanted to take home. While I waited to get my license, I visited the store every night and played with Jester. Her favorite thing was digging in the cedar shavings in a chinchilla box. She also enjoyed eyeing the parrots, but luckily was too young and small to get them (then!). I got her home and set up the cage, litter box, etc. I closed off the kitchen and let her sniff around. For the first two days, I couldn't stop laughing at the Pac-Man noise that she makes when she plays. After a couple of days, I let Mitzi sniff Jester outside of the cage (Mitz had spent the first two days with her nose to the bars trying to figure this new creature out :-). Then I let the two play, and Mitz seemed content to just follow Jes around. Muggs refused to walk by the cage to get to food or litter. I would carry her into the bathroom and she would eat and go, then BOLT past the cage, back to the safety of my bedroom. One day I caught her sneaking veeeeery carefully and quietly up to the back of the cage to sniff. After that she seemed OK if Jes was in the cage, but still frantic when she was out. Last summer, I got a roommate who has a kitten (Charly just turned 1). (Muggs, of course, hated Charly on sight. After 6 months she is finally tolerating having another cat around.) Charly spent several days sitting outside the ferret cage. When we finally got the new apartment ferret- proofed, I let them out to play. Charly freaked out a bit at first, but soon curiosity overcame her and she started following Jester around. Jes returned the curiosity, never having gotten close enough to Muggs to get a really good sniff. Soon the two were chasing each other, engaging in fierce mock-battles and found sleeping curled up together under a bed. Cocoa likes to bite feet...mine, Millie's (the roommate), Mitzi's, the cats', visitors', whatever comes within reach and looks good. This does not make her popular, even with Charly. Her latest fun is sneaking up behind Muggs when she is lying on the couch and grabbing her scruff. The first time she did this, the cat bolted out into midair. Cocoa went flying off and landed with quite a thud. Luckily for her, she is cute enough in (almost) every other way that I love her anyway ;-) and as I continually remind Muggs, I pay the rent (so I get to decide who lives there). [The only other pets we have are fish - Nicia and Mocha don't play with them much...] [Posted in FML 0049]