Here's yet another suggestion for bringing your ferret outdoors with
you when you want to study.  Plan to spend the first hour or more just
playing with your ferret-- get him/her good and tired, so that the
little one will curl up and sleep when you sit down to read.  Just
bring something that the ferret would want to sleep in (like your book
bag or backpack even).  I've been using a figure-8 harness with fairly
good results, but whoever it was that observed that the ferret's weight
can change enough to make the harness not fit sure was right-- after
Amelia slipped out once, I no longer assume it's correctly adjusted
when it goes on.
 
Regina (an AMerican who went to Canada and bought a Canadian
uberfrettchen-- it's people like me that will make America fall!) and
Amelia (I'm too sleepy and fuzzy and cuddly to start a trade war)
[Posted in FML issue 1227]