Jalene asked about ferrets who love being scratched. My Percy will only allow me to hold him if I'm scratching his head...the minute I stop he's up, up and away. Another thing both he and Meeko love (Snoopy's learning to like it) are lower-back massages. I started doing this years ago on the dog and now my ferrets love it. Just lay your fuzzy on its back and gently massage under the ferret working from the neck down. Meeko wriggles around licking my hand while I massage her and Percy lies like a lump with a silly happy face. Does anyone else out there have a ferret who is TERRIFIED of the vacuum cleaner? I don't understand it, the older two have no problems, in fact I have to cage them to keep them away while I'm cleaning. Snoopy, however, climbs to the top of his cage and huddles on the shelf under his hammock while staring straight ahead. Today he wouldn't come out when I stopped the machine and after I brought him out and held him for a while he hid in his tunnel for at least 15-20 minutes. I guess It's good I don't keep THAT clean a house. From now on he's going into another room while I'm cleaning. I had hoped that he would figure out that the machine won't hurt him if he got to investigate it while it was off but he won't go near it. I hope Jitterbug and all the sickly fuzzies and humans are feeling better today. DOOKS Melissa, Meeko, Percy and Snoopy [Posted in FML issue 1706]