Hi folks, Melissa and Potpie here to comment on this-and-that. Biting/Nipping: The best advice I've gotten for curing biting involves the combination of thumping 'em on the nose and giving them kisses. It cured Potpie, who was getting gradually worse and worse with nipping until, in desperation, I called the place I bought her from and asked what the heck was going on. "If you thump her on the nose every time she bites, she's going to think you hate her, and you're being antagonistic. When she's got her teeth on you, thump her. When she lets go, pick her up and give her attention--a kiss, a scritch, some cooing, anything, to let her know you still love her. As it is, with all the whapping right now, you're making it worse." Lo and behold, Potpie's biting stopped. Go figure--the psychology of that technique seems pretty darned obvious to me. Introducing her to people in a FFZ: I took her to the pet (typoed that 'pest' at first, hee) store when I went out to buy some food for her, and she sat in my arms like quite the lady, occasionally diving into my coat and sticking her nose out of my sleeve--much to the delight of the kids who were waiting at the counter. On a whim, I approached the mother and asked her if it was okay for the kids to pet her. Nervously, she agreed, and I took the time while Potpie was busy adoring the scritches from teeny hands to tell the mom that ferrets are wonderful, if time-consuming, pets. Puppy-like, domestic animals. The generic speech I end up giving everyone who asks. :) The story of my first ferret panic 'emergency' which wasn't really: One night, after having let the furry out before bedtime, I came back upstairs into her domain and as I was brushing my teeth I looked down at Potpie and noticed that all of the fur between her pink nose and beady little eyes was brilliant cobalt blue. *panic* What did she eat? I thought. I looked _everywhere_. Under the bed, in the vanity, in the closets, under the couch, in her cage, under her cage, in the corners--everywhere. Finally, out of the corner of my eye as I was standing in one of the rooms, despairing, I saw an innocuous grocery bag that had the top folded down. One of those things that bypassed ferret-proofing, but on a hunch I opened it up... ...and found that she'd torn open a bag of aquarium gravel and had gone nosing through it, dumping it all over the inside of the bag. I could've laughed for hours. :) As I realize more and more that I'm gone a good deal of the time, --too much of the time--, I keep getting the feeling that Potpie needs a companion. Preferably male; she's not a human-oriented ferret, and I don't want to lose the ferrets to each other. :) Before I do something silly like buy a kit, does anyone know of a male ferret that needs a home? Apologies for the long message! Potpie, who has discovered that scattering food out of her cage is FUN, and Melissa, who really needs to put a big tray under the damned cage. :) [Posted in FML issue 0802]