Hi, I'm Eric. I live with my Mom(Karen), Dad(Harry), Sister(YuVawn), and Grandma(Yuvonne). Just today(the 9th) a friend of mine gave me a female ferret(with my moms(not my dads) approval). He got it off his sister who had a male and female ferret(Undertaker and Kane), were not sure why, but he said she decided to get rid of the female(we renamed her Kyra). Not knowing too much about ferrets(and my mom telling me it was my responsibility) I got on the internet too find out as much as I could. I found the FAQ homepage and on it they said it was definately a good idea too sign up for this mailing list. I'm not exactly sure why yet, cause I don't know what kind of info you can send us, but I'm sure it will be helpful. But, there are still a few questions the FAQ didn't answer for me entirely. I'm going too continue to search the internet, but in case I can't find the answers I'm going too ask you also. So if you can help at all please reply. 1st.....Let me tell you what we know so far(in case it makes a difference in any of the questions I have). It is a female ferret not quite a year old yet. I don't believe she has been spayed, vaccinated, or anything yet(though no one told me this, and to be sure I'm going to ask the people that owned it first. But I know them well and it is a safe assumption that none of this has been done). So tommarow my mom wants me too call around and get prices on spaying, descenting and vaccinating. Now it's the descenting that I need too talk about. We hadn't had the Kyra a full 5 hours when I left to go get some cat litter, I came back and the house already smelled like a ferret. My mom said we definately couldn't keep her if the house was going to smell like a ferret. I looked up descenting and it said it doesn't eliminate the problem. It also said a lot of the smell will be on your furniture and stuff that the ferret had been on. I didn't tell my mom this cause we just got new furniture that she loves dearly. So I was wondering.....In your average female ferret, how effective is descenting, what else can we do too keep the smell down, and is there ANYTHING that first time owners need too know, or problems they encounter or ANYTHING you can tell me too help in ANY (I stress that ANY help is needed) way? Also, what is Ferret Sheen Powder? And are there any types of anything that cut down on ferret smell if descenting and such do not work? P.S. I just read about Martial Farms, and checked Kyras ear(she's sleeping in my lap awwwww) she does have a blue dot on her right ear which means she was already spayed. Guess that cleared that up. But I still need too know anything else. Also, feel free too forward this too anyone you want that you think can help, or involve anyone you want. Final note.... I kept this open the whole time I searched the rest of the internet in case I came across anything else I had a question about. There's not, so if you or anyone you know or can contact can help me out I'd greatly appriciate it. And if theres anything else you think I should know PLEASE feel free too tell me. Hope I wasn't too bothersom, Eric [Posted in FML issue 3168]