Hi there. I've been meaning to post these oddities for awhile. My husband was holding two of our fuzzies the other day, one draped along each forearm, and stroking each head with his hands. He whispered for me to come over. Then whispered that they were purring! Now I've had fuzzies for quite some time and have a respectable business of seven (okay, that's puny to some of you!), so I know all about trembling - when awakening, when excited, when scared, whenever! But I swear these two were purring! No noise. Janos told me to feel them while he stroked their heads, and their little motors were going (like shivering but inside, like little cats). Then he stopped stroking and they stopped whatevering. They he started, and they started, he stopped, they stopped, he started, they started --- like little cats purring!!!! Could it be - purring ferrets?! This is weirder. PLEASE someone help -- it is NOT funny! My cat is fifteen years old and weighs eighteen or more pounds. He's getting a bit stiff, but seems happy enough. He has a full human-sized window seat on the south side of the house - which Janos built to read in, but since there was nowhere to feed the cat on the floor (due to seven cat-food loving ferrets) he got the window seat. He's always been very litter-box behaved, excepting once long ago when he went on my dad's bed, after I snuck the box away in hopes he'd learn to go outside, after my dad told me absolutely not to sneak the box away... Mr. Sir Duke Withropt Waverly Wellington, III, tolerates the ferrets and has even been ridden a couple times by one in the past, the same one that would also run underneath him around the house. He gives a lazy toothy snap at them when disgruntled but has had every opportunity to bite and doesn't. They even play together and have been known to cuddle. But Welly is downright fat, can't snack, and just watches the ferrets getting their ferretone, raisons, and LOPE (the prized cantaloupe). He's heavy as a pony and often watches them get lifted and cuddled, while he stays aground. I try to give him attention, but he's gotten so big and snores so loud that occasionally I close my bedroom door at night until I hear him howling, put my earplugs in, and open the door feeling guilty. Janos has never liked cats and Wellington can't stand men that wear boots - practically all men - so they walk far around each other. A few months back an extra large REALLY STINKY ferret poop appeared on a newspaper in a corner of the ferret room (can anyone truly say they've litter trained more than three?!). This happened a couple more times until Janos really let fly: "That cat's pooping all around!" he yelled. I gently countered: "That isn't altogether accurate, darling. He's going on the ferret's paper." There's also a paper beside the toilet when the fuzzies are out (they ignore the cat litter box on the other side of the toilet - the family that poops together...) He's been going on this paper now! "That cats going all over the bathroom," groans Janos. "No darling, I gently chide, "He's going on the paper". This kept up until the time I tried closing Mr. Wellington from my bedroom. Then a REALLY STINKY cat poop appeared on the floor IN FRONT OF the toilet (no surprize from the ferrets, mind). This happened a couple times, usually when I closed my door, during which I groggily staggered in and, SQUISH... nothing grosser than cat poop. I now keep my door open and this has improved, but the problems are still on the rise. I clean the three ferret boxes each afternoon/evening. Yesterday they smelled to high heaven. The cat had backed into the ferret cage (no small feat!) and pooped in one of the boxes! The kicker is, he is pooping more often and much smaller volumes - disguising them as RANK ferret poops. Corner pooping in bathroom and ferret room is becoming his norm. I have even caught him gazing longingly up toward the third floor of the townhouses (the three T's take up an entire wall), where the nice fatty ferret chow is always out (he only gets fed twice a day). And he's been squishing himself into a little ferret bed in my computer room. Has anyone else had a cat converting to ferret behavior? Will I have to start bringing him to ferret frolics in a giant chest papoose? Mr. Lipinski, will he be allowed in the Seattle ferret games? (He doesn't have a mask...) Will he end up threading his way into the ferret Townhouses, getting stuck on the way up? Help! Am I the first to have purring ferrets and a cat that wants to be a ferret? Help!! Lynn Mc. and the Gang of Eight, er Seven?, Fuzzies... (and, always, my Squeeky and his neural tube sibs, Schroedee Boat, and Percy, all dancing in the ferret-studded stars)... [Posted in FML issue 2127]