I forgot to tell folks something funny. Meltdown has for a LONG time now forcefully shaken her head side to side like we do to say "No!" when she feels very strongly about something, but just this week she has twice SAID "No!" as well -- only with Steve so far and only when she had to have the big doses of Furosemide. I knew a dog who could say that and "Momma", and a dog who could say "Out!" (one of the dogs of my teens who was named Bluff -- also a grand name for a ferret), and saw a cat on tv who said "No!" beautifully, plus we've had ferrets who attached meaning to certain sounds (especially our Haleakala who named Steve and I with her own names and would call us), and Hale used to try to yodel with a record we have, but I have never before heard a ferret imitate a human word. It kind of comes out as "Neyh!" and obviously means "No! Do NOT put that stuff in your hand into my mouth!" 'Chopper is partially deaf. She is also incredibly vocal, more so than most hearing ferrets. We do not know if she can hear the sounds she makes, and they tend to be in conflict with her behaviors because she is assertive and over 5 and a half but the sounds are the nebulous high pitched beeps of a kit. She has a very rough time with high pitched sounds and doesn't even hear most of them but does much better with low ones. She's the mouthiest ferret here, though she will never break skin -- she just pinches to get a person's attention -- we suspect that she is less able to realize there are other ways to do so because sound is not a major factor in her life. She's also become extremely myopic, though when she was young she had great eyes and was a climber of renown as well as someone who would wag her tail in circles, hence her name. She's our one who very obviously sees blue or sees something very different about objects which are blue in any shade, and she has an incredible attraction to the color. She's also the one who when young used to wait on high surfaces and bomb other ferrets with whatever was up there, and who used to play trapeze on our dining room chandelier. 'Choppie is a garnet eyed Blaze (typical dark red -- typical gem stone rubies are light red like the eyes of albino ferrets -- says the jewelry-hating daughter of the long retired gemologist, who asks others to not hassel her about variants such as tsavarites). Sukie [Posted in FML issue 1885]