I had to laugh about the ferret that pretended it couldn't use it's back legs to get attention. I thought I'd share a story about my very talented fuzzy actor. The infamous Reverend Maynard hadn't been eating on his own or drinking that I'd noticed about a month and a half ago. I took him to the vet and they gave him amoxycilin (the pink bubblegum smelling stuff) and I was told to give him pedialyte from a syringe quite a few times a day. A knowledgable person (thank you sharon) told me to give him fruit flavored pedialyte, as most of hers at the shelter loved it...so I did. After I convinced him to try the pedialyte, I never saw him drinking on his own for about 3 weeks. I would cut my work short, hurry home from school, drop by the apartment often to give him the pedialyte so he wouldn't dehydrate, eventually I left a small bowl of it out, but he didn't even drink much out of it. I found out that he was faking it...he had been sick at first, but he didn't want to give up the taste of the pedialyte and the attention of being syringe fed and held and fretted over, etc... (I didn't find out until I saw him drinking water out of the cage and he looked guilty when I caught him). Isn't it funny how our ferrets train us? Occasionally I give him liquid out of the syringe now and he looks at it as a treat. Silly fert. Kelly Reverend Maynard: "Maybe if I pretend to have a relapse, I'll get the bubblegum medicine again, too... oh, oh, I don't think I feel so good." Edie: "These ploys will never get you anywhere." [Posted in FML issue 1733]