I had planned to leave on my trip today, but in lifting the big ol' 4x5 I was convinced to put it off for a couple more days. There is no way I want to find myself at 10,000 ft., laying on my back in the middle of nowhere, pinned down by a 50 lb camera that my stomach muscles will not yet quite lift. Ok, I'm getting old....what can I say? On all my prior Scar Treks, I was able to lift heavy stuff a couple weeks after surgery. I'll leave Wed. instead, and will still make all the stops I have promised. This gives a few people the ability to still ask me to stop for a visit or talk. Q: "You wrote that interspecies fighting is typically life-or-death for ferrets, basically a predator/prey relationship of one sort or another.... But I'm wondering: would this usually be more the case with large groups of ferrets...who are maybe not often exposed to other household animals?" A: Is THIS what makes boys into football players? You are, of course, correct in noticing your ferret is play fighting with other species. However, such occurrences are typically the result of human mediated conditioning, not because of some inherent instinct or behavior of the ferret. In other words, the two species play together because they have either been conditioned to "see" each other as 'the same" (NOT the same species; no way. Regardless of conditioning, species STILL recognize their own species as such), they have had their flight zone reduced to zero, or , see each other as a "non-threat." Potential predators outside flight zones may be watched, but only when they enter the zone will the prey attempt escape. When the flight zone becomes zero, the prey never attempts escape. This is a problem in islands or areas where prey species have never been subjected to specific predation and do not recognize the danger. It is also the reason why the CaCaland Farting Gestapo and Cephalic Sadism Society proves their inability to think; prey species in California are already adapted to ferret-like predators (mink, weasels, even kit fox), so even if ferrets ARE introduced into the wild, the impact would be minimal. Also, if a ferret has a personal flight zone of zero (as many do--a trait of domestication), it makes it difficult to escape the coyotes, mink, weasels and other predators which abound in the state and would not see each other as "the same. " Ferrets, like polecats and black-footed ferrets, have to LEARN how to escape predators, which includes learning which ones can get you. I do think that in those instances where a ferret is conditioned to see another animal as "the same," it will initiate play fighting and even some dominance fighting as if the other species were another ferret. I think they will even initiate play fighting if they see another animal as "non-threatening," but probably will not attempt dominance fighting. So, you are correct that exposure and conditioning will shift a "potential predator" into the category of "potential plaything." However, that doesn't change the initial post; even if a ferret sees a cat as "the same" as itself, it would STILL react with flight or fight if it perceived itself in danger. So, while some ferrets may include the odd bipedal or gigantic nonmusteliform animal in their familial lineage, it doesn't change their typical reactions to interspecies fighting. Bob C and 16' Mo' Anthropomorphic Animals [Posted in FML issue 2981]