Since I work in the veterinary profession, I can tell you that if you have to go the way of one extreme or the other, you are far better off being "overprotective". Do you know how many animals we see in a week that are either in need of very lengthy and expensive treatment or beyond help, because the owner either listened to a friend, neighbor, just thought it was no big deal and would go away, or to quote something we hear often "but I just didn't think"............? While I personally do not think you should panic at every little thing, I have had professional training. My advice to people is always that you know your pet, no matter how silly it might seem to someone else if you think something is amiss, or you are not sure, seek veterinary advice. Better safe than sorry. Your advice on not interfering with nature is odd coming from a woman who manipulates jills to have two litters in one season. Particularly when the jill is deaf and has produced deaf kits. Deafness is a genetic defect. This jill is listed on your website as having both sire and dam unknown. How do you know that she is not carrying and passing other genetic defects? She was bred to a hob, who has had some medical problems in his immediate line (father, brother.....). You sell these kits for a high price because you think the colors are beautiful. Normal hearing kits can be a handful to train let alone deaf kits. You try to retire and place breeders by the time they are two-three yrs old. You do not keep them long enough to find out what they may get. It is not true that keeping adult animals unneutered is healthier, particularly older ones. You risk the chance of them developing mammary tumors and life threatening uterine infections called pyometra in jills, and testicular tumors for one in males. Perhaps you should start being a little more "overprotective". Pat Stauffer Weasels http://pages.prodigy.net/staufferp/ [Posted in FML issue 3108]