Dear Lars,
Please disregard my input on the minks as pets.  Like I said I was a little
girl and that was longer ago than I like to admit so my memory may be
tainted.  As far as I know my Opa never did have difficulties with his minks
but then I wasn't there all the time and he had a five or six (what I could
count from an old picture with the minks, my sister and myself).  My Opa
loved animals too but he was from the old school and his policy was that if
one of his animals bit him they were shot.  I may not have noticed if one
was missing or he may have lied about its whereabouts in order to spare us
the details.  My mother has come clean about the disappearance of our mice
and a few others over the years.  I'll have to ask her about the minks
because a number of pets we hand raised had surrogate mothers and toy "mice"
made of mink.  Although I think stuffing pets and the like it grotesque my
grandfather always kept the pelts so there is no telling if they died of
natural causes or if he put them down.
 
Best of Luck,
        Irena...Lucy's mom
[Posted in FML issue 1491]