I am taking my ferrets for formal weekly visits to Seans school as opposed to the fun unplanned visits of last year. I am doing little lessons each time...then each child gets supervised alone time with the ferret. The child may watch the ferret, touch the ferret, feel its ears etc, smell the ferret, and even hold the ferret. I encourage talking to the ferret too for socialization and communication. Aside from working on sensory defensive problems in children.... there must be more I can do. Tactile and olfactory defensive issues must not the be the only thing I can work on here. I looked for pet therapy on the web. I found that dogs and cats visit hospitals for moral, they visit nursing homes for companionship and to fight depression. But I find no formal "therapy". I can not seem to find pet therapy with sp needs children (other than nice visits from animals) either. Has anyone heard of or have any sites on this? I need to research this and make the most of this time that I can. I am very disheartened by all the sites I found of "organizations" that take your money to become a "pet therapist". They charge for the information (for you to train yourself and the pet), Then they charge you hefty yeaaarly fees, plus membership fees for you not mention the money for the "courses" they send. Then they take a registration fee for your animal, PLUS a yearly fee for EACH animal you use (like I could not use all my ferrets...only one). The list goes on and on. It all made me sick to my stomack frankly. After all there is no formal technique that I know of, nothing has ever been studied formally as far as anything beyond how an animal effects someones psychological "affect". I just thought that was intersting. Anyway does anyone have any information on pet therapy with special needs children, or on ferrets being used for pet therapy. People tell me there have been articles, and such....but can not give me names nor sites, nor references. I"m getting frustrated...thinking..."wheres the beef". Wolfy Please visit: http://www.geocities.com/wolfysluv/ for information on ferret deafness: http://www.geocities.com/wolfysluv [Posted in FML issue 3225]