Hi, I'm a new ferret owner, having purchased my first fuzzy 'Boris' just 3 weeks ago. Both my husband and I are animal lovers, sharing our home with 4 cats, 7 dwarf frogs, assorted fish and now 2 ferrets. On Monday of this week I stop by what turned out to be a shelter for Rabbits, Rodents, and Ferrets. I had driven out of my way to see what kind of ferret things that had, when I got inside I realized that it was a shelter. That had at least a dozen adult ferrets, most over the age of 2, two were around 1 1/2 out on display. I had been thinking that it might be nice for Boris to have a ferret friend, especially since he was trying to teach the cats ferret games and they were not catching on to the chase me game. Having 4 cats and Boris (13 weeks old) I thought it would be better to get a ferret that was under 6 months of age. I asked if they had any other ferrets, telling them what age range I was looking to adopt. The took me in the back and showed me 2 new boys they had just taken in a few days earlier, they were very close in age to Boris. Of course I feel in love with the silver mitted boy and had a name for him the minute I saw him. I was told that the women who took care of adoptions was not there and they were uncertain as to what the status was on the 2 boys they had just showed me. I filled out paper work for adopting the little mitted boy. I called on Tuesday morning and got little new information about his status, I was ready to pick him up that afternoon, had the carrier in the car, had told Boris all about him, I was disappointed but holding out hope for a Wednesday home coming for him. Wednesday I called and talked to someone else who told me that the status for adoption was uncertain as the boy I was interested in was biting, I could not find out from them if he was biting all the time or just if he was picked up while playing. They did tell me he was not biting hard, I told them I was still interested and would like to get him by the end of the week as I had a vet appointment Saturday morning for Boris to get a shot and check-up and would like to be able to take the new guy with me to the vet. I was told that they would call the lady 'Sandy' and for me to call back that evening. I once again drove miles out of my way and went by the shelter only to be told that they were not going to adopt him at this time and that when they did he would have to go with the other one as a pair. I also found out that he had not even been to a vet yet and they didn't even know when he would be going. Now I was really disappointed. In talking to the girl I found out something that really bothered me, it seems that the help is fighting among themselves as to who is going to get a certain female ferret they have. I asked if there were any other ferret shelters in Seattle (I had look in the yellow pages and could not find any listed), I was hoping that they might know of one, but was told that they were the only shelter in the area for ferrets. This shelter left a bad taste in my mouth, too bad as both my husband and I give to Hooterville Safehaus for dogs and cats. I'm 47, my husband is 40, we have no children, at least not any that only have 2 legs :), my cats see the best cat vet in Seattle, Dr R., he is board certified, he recommended the vet Boris will see on Saturday. We have a huge 4 bedroom home, all the areas that Boris and Chester are allowed to visit freely have been ferret proofed. I can not for the life of me understand people that get pets and then don't want them. Both my husband and I have a committed relationship with our children, I could no more give one of them away then to cut off my right hand. I ended up last night going back to where I had purchased Boris and getting another ferret, he is the same age as Boris and they are very hard to tell apart. The new boy is named Chester and he does the funniest war dancing. Sorry that this was so long, just had to air my disappointment with the shelter. I do have a question. Boris and Chester seem to be doing great together, they danced, dooked and chased each other all over their bedroom, when it was time to go in the cage for the night they both got to biting each other on the neck, Boris doing most of the biting, it looked like they were trying to shake each other, they was no loud crying, but some soft cries like, oh, that hurts, let go. Should I be worried? It really scared me, I even took them back out of the cage and all was fine. Their was no blood and they were OK this morning. I need to know what a real ferret fight is like. Thanks, Suzy and David Boris and Chester, the 'FNG' fuzzies Izzy, Spud, Kody, Chloe, the jumping fuzzies with very long legs Black, Tan and the gang of 5, not fuzzies, but very funny frogs Suzy Cecere Systems Engineer Physio-Control Corporation [log in to unmask] 425-867-4483 [Posted in FML issue 2245]