I had meant to send these on paper for a long time, but hadn't ever gotten around to it, so I'm giving in and emailing. I hope the attachments aren't too large. Of course it's always much easier to take pictures of sleeping ferrets....

Bug and Boo (formerly Tori and Bouncing Betty) have settled in very well since October. At first they were quite timid, and Boo was kind of uncoordinated - couldn't climb all the way up the stairs. They ate and ate like they couldn't believe there would always be food, and would take off running if we approached too quickly or at any sudden loud noise or voice. They gradually got the idea that they're safe enough here (well, except when David brought home that toy bird that's got a button that's supposed to play an Oriole song - we played that once and it terrified them).

Bug is bolder and overall not quite as bright, so she decided to trust us much more quickly than Boo did. She took some time to get the hang of litter training, but is very sweet and likes to pin Boo down and wash and wash and wash his ears. In one attached picture, she had been washing his ears until she fell asleep on his head. She pulls towels off the towel rack in the bathroom and cuddles up in them to sleep - Boo and sometimes Tasha then share her little nests. She likes to play ball with tennis balls (full or half size), or anyway to run off and hide the balls in her little hidey-holes. She moves them around from time to time to keep them safe.

Boo took longer to decide to trust us, but now does fine, athough he still doesn't like loud noises and I don't think he was at all happy during Thunder Over Louisville or the 4th of July - we live close enough to downtown to hear all the booms. He's learned to tolerate being held and hugged and petted. He's gotten very fat, is up to three pounds, and it's adorable to see him waddle backwards when he wants to play chase. He's very intelligent, and almost immediately learned that going to the litterbox will get him a treat. Bug beats up on him, but he seems to love all ferrets. Both will play with us, but only if no appropriate ferrets are available.

Tasha, who came home with me in May, still likes people much more than ferrets. She may not even know what those other little furry things are and probably hadn't seen another ferret since she was a baby. Whoever had her must have been very careful with her and she must have been kept pretty close - maybe just within one room in a ferret playpen or something. She knows how to play, but didn't really know how to climb onto things or get back down, and had obviously never seen stairs (although of course that could happen even if she'd had run of the house). She's still working on the litter training when outside of her cage.

She got very sick a week or so after we got her, and stayed that way for two weeks, and we were afraid she wouldn't make it - I guess maybe her immune system was just shot from all the stress she'd had in such a short period of time. Her vet thought she might have Disseminated Idiopathic Myositis (sp?) http://www.miamiferret.org/fhc), although it's unusual for a ferret her age to get it and survivors are rare. We still have no real or definite idea what it was, but it was scary. Fortunately she is a people ferret and trusts humans, so medicating her and feeding her and keeping her hydrated wasn't as difficult as it could have been.

Now that she's well, she wants to play and play and play with the big ugly ferrets (humans), and is a very effective furry one and a half pound guilt generator, so she gets plenty of playtime. Occasionally she'll very cautiously try to play with Bug or Boo, but she get scared or backs off when they play too energetically, and they generally leave her alone if she doesn't want to play. She genuinely likes being held and petted and fussed over, and is incredibly gentle.