Hey! Yippee!! Someone else on the FML has a purring ferret. That makes three fuzzy purrers (and means I'm sane)!!! Anyone else? The ferret-pooping cat Wellington: This morning, yesterday morning, day before that morning... sigh... I forgot to mention he PEES on the ferret paper, too, 18-pounds-worth cat pee... :(..... First, let me say that those who wrote about my huge cat pooping like a ferret in corners and elsewhere were quite cheering and encouraging. Thank you! I haven't heard from an animal psychologist, but stories seem to point to that need! One wrote: "any chance 'your' normal behavior is to wait for your ferrets to poop in their litterbox and then to pick them up? If so, maybe Wellington has noticed and is waiting for you to pick him up." If one of my fuzzies ran from a sleepy corner of my bedroom to poop in a Townhouse litterbox, I'd shout so loud with glee it would scare us all! As a matter of fact, though, when the fuzzies go "off the paper" - I do sometimes pick them up for a friendly, hopeless, little lecture. I guarantee Mr. Wellington hasn't received this treatment. I have felt guilty for not picking Welly up more... I love him... but he's heavy as a man-sized bowling ball and has a double-fur coat (Russian Blue) which flies everywhere... no excuse, just needs brushing more often, too. As we speak, Welly has crushed himself once again in the small ferret bed in my computer room - I feel like we're at our second therapy session. Psychological causation has cropped up in a couple other messages. One kitty was being babysat by a mother-in-law. His family fuzzy Fidget was brought over in a pet taxi for a visit, wherby the cat readily climbed into the taxi and pooped in the tiniest of makeshift litterboxes. I think that kitty was saying, "ready to go home." One replier was ROFLMAO, which is what I am in the morning -- the ROLFing part -- when I discover Welly's crafts. Some thought my post good for a big hearty belly laugh, which is grand, because my morning prance into cat poop should be good for something. I'm sure this next nice person doesn't mind me quoting from her amazing story!... "Hi, I read your FML post and I have had somewhat similar things like that. I have 5 fuzzies. I had a cat that over time I guess thought the ferrets should be hers so she started getting more and more protective over them to the point where I could not pick them up or even feed them and she started attacking me and I mean vicious attacks the last time i was left with scratches all over and 6 stiches and many bite marks so that cat went to my moms to live and has been fine ever since. Now the current cat I have had for about 8 months he loves to play with the ferrets and has one in particular he favors. They play and play and the ferret acts like the cat sometimes. I have caught the cat in the ferrets cage asleep in the hammock using there litter box and several other things. But I have never seen the fuzzies purr as you explained it. Cats do the weirdest things." WOW!!!! And all I have to worry about is ferret-pooping cat! (Though Wellington did attack me once after a ten-day vacation. I'd just gotten home and was petting him absent-mindedly - cats seem to resent absent-minded attention - as we sat on the couch. He went literally wild! Ended up chasing me down the hall, him spitting, hissing and clawing my bare legs -- it's true! - til I lept into the bathroom and locked the door. When I gained the courage to come out, he'd calmed down. I have a healthy respect for his abilities and never want this to happen again! So, guys, Respect your Cat! (how does that song go?...) Okay, now the clincher. Things have degressed. It's happened before, and I didn't mention it in my pervious post -- hadn't happened for awhile so I actually forgot, if you can imagine! -- but this morning was bad and sad. One of the two corner newspapers in the ferret room (they sleep in the three wall-sized Townhouses, but the corners are manned and ready for their a.m. release) was gray-black and shrively looking. Standing in my thermal long johns (they down't twist around like a nighty), my hair twisted in a unicorn pigtail atop my drowsy head, I realized that Mr. Sir Duke Winthropt Wellington, III, though I hadn't found one rank fuzzy-imitating poop that morning, had urinated on the ferret paper... leaving not one dry square inch. I carried it dripping to the garbage - morning serenity shot - yellow urine drips decorating my shiny new white cabinet. Minnie trotted up and I dashed for a sponge, lest she, too, end up spattered with Wellington's missive. ....two days pass... I wrote that two days ago. Wellington is once more curled into the ferret bed. There have been plenty more sightings of fake RANK ferret poops and one more soaking newspaper (this morning). What's a mother to do?! Change the litterbox (as one responder suggested, and it needs it, though it won't help much) and love the cat - big ole flaws and all. After 16 years, he's earned his idiosyncracies. Who knows, maybe I won't even have to change his litterbox at all after awhile? That's called "seeking the positive"... Thank you all again for your letters and support. I now know I'm not the only ferret-cat mom, and others have ferrets who purr. That helps alot! Lynn Mc. & the Gang of Seven Fuzz Slinkies and One Fuzz Slug (and, always, the fuzz guys dooking at the stars - Schroedee, Percy, and Squeeks & neural-tube sibs) P.S. Someone suggested Welly may have a bladder infection, which was a good suggestion but, oh heaven forbid! He has had a penisectomy (made a great date story - the looks on men's faces!) for a blocked urethra due to feline urological syndrome. He has had a couple bladder infections over the last ten years since the penisectomy (the vet said you could drive a Mac truck thru his urethra now & he's never blocked up again) and I tell you, they are bad. He pees all over constantly. That would in utmost certainty begin to stretch the limit of a loving ferret-pooping cat mom! [Posted in FML issue 2130]