My husband introduced us ages ago, but I'll do it again. Ron and I have 4 ferrets (Totoro, Neko, Akira, and Judy), 3 cats (Kamaria, Frigate, and Mesu), one iguana (DOLOOP:), and one human rug rat on the way (Robin Thomas). My possible problem is this, about a week ago Judy, who is about 3yrs old, possibly going on 4 (we didn't get her as a kit), started coughing. Not the usual sneezes and occasional coughing like the others do, but a serious hack. Her who body kind of spasms as she coughs. Ron felt her tummy while she was coughing at one point, and he said it felt somewhat hard, but so did Totoro's, and he has been fine. Judy seems fine once she's done (each bout of coughing lasts a minute or two at most), but is pretty unhappy during, letting me hold her, which she dosen't normally do. Could this be hairballs? Something worse? She seems fine other than the hacking. Should I get her to the vet? On a less worrisome note, our neutered male cat, Frigate, has recently decided that Neko the ferret is pretty neat. Several times we've caught him hauling Neko around by her scruff, just like a big wild cat with a kill. Neko dosen't seem to be at all bothered by this, and he's not drawing blood, so we haven't intervened. Until yesterday, that is, Frigate realized that Ron was watching him, stopped, felt Neko with a paw, then started stepping on her, so Ron interrupted. Neko was fine. Has anyone else ever seen anything else like this? If Frigate was a full female, I would guess he wanted a kitten, but that seems highly unlikely. He plays with all the ferrets, but only picks out Neko for this special attention. Another idea for biting that nobody else has mentioned. This one I learned from Ron, who has been using it on dogs for years. When a ferret bites unacceptably hard or without good reason, we bite back. Yes, it sounds blech, and you have to have a tolerance for fur to do it. We usually get the scruff. Ron occasionally proves he has a bigger mouth than Akira by putting Ak's whole head in his mouth. Biting back seems to impress them, and you have to bite a LOT harder than I would have believed before they even squeak. Well this has gotten longer than I meant. Thanks in advance for replies. Ron, Liana, and all the assorted rug rats. [Posted in FML issue 0565]