Well, the new family is doing just great, even if they have given me several heart attacks already! Pandora, my "most perfect" ferret, seems to instigate everything! She has managed to escape from her cage once already, but we found the problem and fixed it. Also, she poops in the middle of the floor rather than a corner or, heaven forbid, going back to one of the five litter boxes now in the house, and then she scoots her butt on the carpet to wipe!!! Aaaarrrgghhh! She likes to pick fights with everyone, too. And she is the one who latched on to my 100#+ dog's back leg with her teeth and hung on, swinging, while he twisted in circles trying to see what was hanging off of him! He'd never do anything to hurt her, though, not even to get the little mutant off of him... this is the dog that once 'nursed' an orphaned litter of kitten, and who let my daughter sit on him and literally walk over him (until she got too heavy & I stopped her) and never even raised his head. Flower is the cleverest. She's the one who almost got the cage door open with her teeth, and she's the one who found a hole in the wall we didn't even know was there until now (where the water pipes to the washe come out of the wall). That is getting blocked off today. Tank, the big fat deaf boy, has taken to terrorizing everyone. He is by far the most active and playful. He runs full speed all around the house, and loves to launch himself at us. He hits my husband and I at about knee-level and latches on with all four feet to your pants leg. My daughter, who is five, is starting to be a little afraid to walk around the house when he is out because of this predilection of his. I haven't figured out what to do about that problem yet. Tank is also the only one who likes to nip (he doesn't hurt, but my daughter is afraid of him). I think it's because he's the youngest. He war-dances the most, too. And he loves to wrestle the other ferrets, but he's so darn HUGE that he squishes them! Poor Moogie is my dearest darling, but although the other ferrets have accepted him and he enjoys sleeping with them, he doesn't much want to play with them; he tends to go off on his own when let out, and thrashes them in short order when they bug him (kind of odd to watch, since he is the smallest & lightest of the bunch, by far). He gets tired the fastest, too, and is still too thin. Last night I let him stay out of the cage all night, like he used to before their arrival (I still haven't gotten to know Pandy, Tank, and Flower well enough yet to do that-- not that I could ever do that and sleep at all, probably, anyway), and I gave him extra treats to try to fatten him up some and give him more energy. He's my frail little baby that I always worry about. Nobody gives me ferret kisses! I hope it's just because they're not used to me yet! Even Moogie doesn't want to give kisses much anymore since I brought home the three hellions, but I did get some nice kisses from him this morning. Usually to get fert kisses I have to coat my fingers with Ferretone. Hrumph. Once last thing-- we connected our two big cages this weekend with a tunnel (my husband's weekend project) and it worked great. Vickie Pandora ("Maybe if I put my nose in the air & stare at her while I scoot my butt across the floor, she'll think I'm even cuter!") Flower ("That's right, Pandora, keep her occupied while I have some REAL fun!") Tank ("Duh...") Moogie ("That's fine, just fine, I see how you are...") [Posted in FML issue 2432]