Well, when ferret math struck me, it struck in a big way! It seems like only yesterday that I got my first little boy, Moogie. But now I'm the happy recipient of the three little darlings in Reno that Mustang Charlie posted about a week or so ago! I feel so extremely fortunate to have these little babies. They truly were in desperate need of a new home, as well; the 'ailing friend' that MC mentioned in his posting had done an extremely kind service by taking care of these three as long and as well as he did. He actually rescued them himself, about three months ago when the temperatures here were climbing above the 100 degree mark, from an owner who had them outside on his front porch, prostrate from the heat. So now I have the little lovlies. They really are beautiful! Two are sable girls, about 2 years old, and as different as night and day. One is quite dark, slim, small, and shy. My daughter named her Flower, a.k.a. "Tiger Lily". The other girl is clearly my husband's new darling; he is apt at any given time to be carrying her around, either on his shoulder or held up to his face where he gazes at her lovingly and baby-talks her. Seth says she is the most perfect ferret in the whole wide world (no offense intended, Easy-Off!), and she is pretty darn perfect. She is gorgeous, in fact, with much paler body fur (almost like a siamese cat), and the most perfect conformation, and the most perfect size, and the softest fur imaginable... the list goes on and on. Seth named her Pandora {with her Box (cage) of Evil (ferts)}. And she's a hellion-- definitely rules the roost. And then there's the Tank. Tank is my new baby boy. He's 1 & 1/2 years old. He is... I guess a silver? I'm still not to 'up' on identifying these color varieties yet... but he's mostly dark-eyed white, with a pink nose, and a grey band running up from each front leg over his back and meeting in the middle, and another grey band running around most of his tail, but leaving the tip white. His two most identifiable characteristics are the fact that he's obviously deaf (but the most playful of the three), and that he's HUGE. I don't have a scale, but I'd almost bet that he's between four and five pounds! He's a huge giant lard-ass white rat of a boy!!! I just love him! They're all three healthy as can be. I've finally integrated them with Moogie, and after one brief tussle with each of them, he now seems to fit in just fine (though they do seem to snub him for each other, most of the time). At least there's no fighting. I still worry about Moogie being too thin to hold his own, though. I just can't understand why, when I've been feeding Moogie the best foods that I can find, he still stays malnourished looking and dry coarse furred, and then I see ferrets that eat fruit loops and cheap grocery store cat food for a diet, and they all look healthier, hardier and fatter than he does! This food thing is driving me crazy! So anyway, all four are now in the large cage, with an add-on cage being constructed this weekend to expand the space, and then they have the run of the place in the evenings. They really like their three-level cage, three hammocks, and the sleeping bag that all came (very kindly) with them from their previous owner. I've tried to identify what they were being fed, and it looks like Chef's Blend cat food. So now I've mixed Chef's Blend, Purina Kitten Chow, Marshall Ferret Diet, and Eukanuba kitten all together in an attempt to wean them over to the better foods, which I plan to eventually feed them exclusively. They also get along famously with Subatai the Himalayan, Ogre the 100pd+ pit-boxer, and Tori the 5-Year-Old Wonder Child. More later-- this has been a long enough post already! Vickie, Moogie the Rainbow Carpet Shark, Pandora and her Box of Evils, Flower aka Tiger Lily, and Tank the Fat A** Fert! And a psycho kitty and very harrassed pooch. [Posted in FML issue 2429]