Roger, would LOVE to know more about the work of Erdman and Fox. What do you mean by "cure"? The most amazing possibility is that you mean that Fox's long search for a viral predisposer to lympho in ferrets has been found and that they are working on possible immunizations and treatments using portions of protein from said virus, retrovirus, etc. If so then their work is right up there with some of the most advanced work on human cancers (about 20% of which seem to be related to chronic viral infections). Alternatively they could be working on chemo treatments which can tackle even lung based lympho, a treatment for a possible viral predisposer itself, a way to tackle said virus in the environment (a problem with Aleutians which I know Fox was considering at one point as being implicated in lymphomas and which is hard as hell to get out of a home if it's in ( I mean as in getting rid of any possible carrier animals, getting rid of carpets and all bedding, washing all surfaces many times with bleach, and STILL giving a 6 month quarantine, to only face the reality that lots of critters carry it so it can drift on in again.). Any would be great news. Most likely they won't say zip till they have their numbers hard and fast and have already submitted a paper for review, but if you could get a few teasers it would be great. Tyler, it sounds like you are doing a damn fine job. Judging from what it took to maintain Hjalmar and Fritter past the worst and get them eating again the fact that you have her taking some on her own and can now get in 10 droppers on top of that may well mean you're getting in what's needed as long as you feed often enough. That her incision is healing well is a good sign. The body is not stressed enough to divert it's energy from that healing. Isn't it horrid to see them so thin? We also had to restart Hjalmar after his surgery; he got to the point where his skin not only showed his ribs but it wrapped around and UNDER the last rib. It took a little while but the mush got him back up to normal weight which he then retained. You may want to add a few extra calories and nutrients by dissolving Nutrical in water since Ayla is drinking well. We agree about ferret owners being great people -- the kind which can be relied on when the chips are down. Our vets have told us that they find ferret owners to mostly be very concerned individuals who are ready to provide an extreme level of nursing care, and that because so little is known about ferret health they find that ferret owners are often much better informed than the owners of other animals whose health care needs are generally better understood by the average vet. Our ferrets are still having post-storm nightmares. They were VERY worried before it hit. The only time we saw them worse was a few years ago in a summer storm when all of them started screaming at the tops of their lungs. I looked out the back window an saw a funnel trying to form. (Our only real storm worry is that an aunt and uncle are still missing since the storm. They were supposed to be in a very bad hit area of Florida in their motor home, but may have taken the warning seriously and moved on to an area which is still having trouble with phones. That's our hope. Otherwise we only had a bit of an ice dam in the pipes and a 3' cube of ice encapsulating part of the car which had to be carefully removed with rock hammer and chisel -- delicately so as to not concuss or dislodge essentials. How did everyone else make out?) Re: training the deaf. A deaf friend told me that to get his attention when he was little his parents would stomp the floor hard so he felt the vibration. Then they used other means to say what was wrong. Never heard of trauma induced deafness in ferrets nor can I imagine a physiological mechanism for deafness from early loss of mother, though I do expect that ferrets which get little human attention may be less inclined to pay attention to owners. There are a number of genetic, disease, abuse, accident, and other potential causes, though. Re: caging: except for our massively inbred little girl who is literally retarded and has a number of other problems as well (such as severe allergies, massive production of histamines -- perhaps not all allergy related, and acrondoplasic dwarfism) so is likely to bite strangers from fear or from mis-reading of her wacky body language, and is not even safe with the other ferrets we have NEVER had a biting problem or regular misbehavior (except for carefully mis-placed turds which BELONG where we are too stupid to understand they belong to properly mark our territory). Nor are our critters stressed-out. They live in their cages (read safe dens) for 18 to 20 hour a day and will happily put themselves back in when tired or if something like an approaching storm is frightening. They would hardly go happily or for protection to a place of stress. Ruffle is our exception, but let's face reality -- a retarded animal of any type is far more of a challenge and more easily frightened. We have to control her environment more carefully, that's all -- including taking extra careful care to be massively consistent with her. She has learned a startling amount (and regularly has to learn it over and over) and is gentle as can be with Steve and me. Katie, sorry about your laparoscopy, and if you were already attached to your fetus, then , please, accept our condolences. Sometimes it can be a very sorrowful situation to deal with although far too few realize that. U.Penn and AMC should have veterinary optholmologists. In southern N.J. , below Trenton there is Dr. James Clinton whom we used for Hale's problems (eye bitten through by canine of male during mating while with a breeder, and Sjogrens), but that was about 8 years ago so we don't even recall the town. I know he said then that one N.C. breeder had stock so inbred that the majority had cataracts by the age of 1. 'Chopper (Helicopter) has now discovered how to run the camcorder. "Big button. Push hard." (The last was some attempt at her thoughts.) She amazed Steve the other day. She and I have a "Choppy grab" game where she holds my hand with her "hands" and I lift her (strong arms on this one -- she climbs anything). I was in a Balans Tripose chair, a sort of recliner, and she looked at me so I said " 'Choppy grab Mommy foot. "Choppy come up see Mommy." then put my foot down. She dashed over, immediately wrapped her "hands" around the edges, and I lifted her up to me. It was the first time we ever considered that variant. Even Ruffy knows some body part names, and if you get her attention and ask "Where ferret belly?" when she plays with the toy ferret, she'll dump it on its side and politely bump the belly, but ask her "Where ferret nose?" and she'll bite the nose for all she's worth. Recently, while mourning Hjalmar I was cuddling Meltdown while I cried and she became very concerned so I said "Mommy wraak wraak Hjalmar" We use that term for cry or sad as we interpret them since that's how ferret babies cry. Meltdown began to whimper when I mentioned Hjalmar and we hugged and cried together (Meltdown whimpering) for maybe 5 or ten minutes. Then she reached up an gently and licked off my tears. Johnnie and Yoko in the brief case sounds like great fun. Does it have a zipper they open? A few months ago Meltdown discovered how to open zippers and NOTHING is too sacred for that to be done (fair warning to any who visit before this game becomes to mundane for her to continue). You know what gets me? When there is a new play noise, and you really want to find out what they are doing, but as soon as you get close enough to see all you find is that each and every one of them is looking up at you with innocent, angelic eyes. Magic carpet ride sounds great! All of our's hate snow with the exception of Spot who loves to dance, prance, dig, and burrow in it. Meeteetse acts like it's something best left to the nether world. All our best wishes, Sukie, Steve, Meltdown, Ruffle, the Helicopter ('Chopper), Spot, and Meeteetse [Posted in FML issue 0440]