January 2001 "Consumer Reports" on pages 8 and 9 has 25 categories about the average American. Here are the estimates of pets they had for the nation in MILLIONS of pets: cats 59, fish 56, dogs 53, birds 13, rabbits 6, ferrets 6, rodents 4.8, reptiles 4. Total pet cost for nation is $23 billion/year. Oh, and Yahoo's "Internet Life" has a mention of ferrets and stores from which to buy holiday gifts for those same spoiled and wonderful ferrets. [Posted in FML issue 3259]