Re the question about Fleas and ferrets, yes we did that too.  Not
with an old chair full of fleas but with a cat who's flea collar had
expired.  They are darn hard to get rid of, because the critters crawl so
many places and spread the flea eggs around.
        We ended up washing all the bedding etc, etc, and then going away
for a day while several rooms in the house were bombed.  The shampoo part
was actually the easiest.  Fleas dislike water as much as ferrets seem to
like it.
        I turned on the kitchen faucet with warm water, and used this to
lather up Squeeker's head and neck area with Johnson's no tears shampoo.
This chased the fleas rearward, at which point we used a bar of flea soap to
lather up the rest of him real good.  The instructions said to keep the soap
on the animal for at least five minutes withour rinsing which was kind of
difficult, but a big towel to wrap Squeekers in, helped (obviously keep him
from licking himself till after the rinse).  Also I think that the fact that
the fleas stopped moving around, helped some too.
        After that, just rinse him off starting at his head and going
backward.  Also it helped to use pretty warm water, and to turn him on his
back in your hand and run the water over his tummy.  Sometimes you can find
one or two fleas that are still hangin on that way.
        I think that we did two or three baths a week for both Rocky and
Squeekers for two weeks running before we were satisfied.  Basically it is a
matter of keeping the pressure on, till the fleas give it up.  It only takes
two of them to find each other, but my impression is that they don't
individually live that long either.  Two weeks of intensive work seemed to
do it, followed by a spot check bath every now and then.              Good luck.
                        -W.M.
[Posted in FML issue 1007]