Pardon me if this rambles a bit, but I am a little up in arms over a mess I have gotten my (our) self into. We have had Jasper (male sable) for three months now (he is 5 months old). We have managed to break him pretty well of most of his bad habbits, blah, blah. Anyway, we have always know eventually we would want another ferret. A little over a week ago, we went the pet store for supplies, and found an adorable albino male (same age as Jasper). We nearly bought him on the spot, but convinced our selves to think about it a bit. The pet store let us bring Jasper out to see if they would get along. Not too bad, the play seemed a little rough, but hey, there are ferrets aren't they. So we go home that night to think it over and decide against it. A few tears of regret, but we were ok, I thought. Jasper seemed to get depressed a day after, and slept nearly a whole day with out playing at all. I called the vet, thinking he may have gotten sick from the pet store. We decided to just watch him for a day or to see if he came out of it. He did, and everything was back to normal until today (saturday). Went into another pet store intentionally to avoid seeing ferrets, when low and behold there was a whole bunch of them. Being the suckers we are, we were at the cage in a minute looking over all of them. Found a 10wk old female (not yet spayed) that was priceless. They called her a saphire sable (cross between an albino and a regular sable), never heard of this before, any truth to it?? Anyway, we pretty much had ourselves convinced to go home and think about it, then the owner says, why don't you take her home till monday and see if you want her. Dumb, Dumb, Dumb, of course we said yes. Here's what the past few hours have been like. Jasper spends quite a bit of time chaseing her and biting her pretty hard about the scruff of the neck. Hasn't bit hard enough to break the skin, but has gotten a few squeeks/wimpers out of her. We break it up before it gets too rough... She has pooped all the way across the room. Couldn't stop playing long enough to sit still while she took care of business... She bites so hard that she has drawn blood on me at least five times. Many other times that nearly drew blood... Just a few mintues ago I went to check on my wife and the two carpet sharks, what mayhem! Ok you all get the picture, now I'll get to my questions: 1). Have I (we) totally lost our minds!?!?! (you don't have to answer that one we all ready know). 2). Are ferrets ok by themselves? One of the main reasons we are considering getting this ferret is so Jasper will have a playmate. If we decide against it will Jasper be happy by himself? 3). Is this level of roughness normal? Is Jasper just being a "guy", or is he upset that we brought another ferret into HIS home? 4). Any tips for breaking her biting? We've been doing the usual little thump on the nose, firmly saying no, etc. We missing anything? 5). Anyone else agonized over something like this before? We really want her, but just aren't sure. I was out of school all summer and was able to work with Jasper extensively. I go back to school next week and won't have nearly the time to work with the little girl. Sorry about the rambling, we really have gotten ourselves worked up over this. One other thing. If we decide no and bring her back, is it harmful to her and Jasper? They will have spent two days and two nights together. Will they have trouble separating? AAAAAAHHHHHHH !!!!!! Brett & Missy Lapham and Jasper toooooo Do I get a sister or what?! P.S. Just found them curled up together under the couch! EEEGAD!!! [Posted in FML issue 1671]