Hi Steve, et.al.; I read long ago that you can give them permission to leave.. This seemed foreign to my upbringing, but one day Mr. Bear looked more tied than usual. He'd survived some 7 months aftr 2 vets gave up on him. What came to my mind that I told him was : "I love you very much.. If it's between God and you that it's time to go, you have my permission, but if you want to stay, I'll do whatever I can to help". He finished his dinner of recipe, and crawled into the ski cap I had in a small tent under the table in the kitchen of the motor home I was in at the time. There was no sound during the night. In the morning, he was in the exact same position, looking like he was asleep, but he had crossed over. This has been repeated some 6 times, with them leaving from 4hrs to 2 weeks later. I am now a believer they understand. The only time I took one to the vet to be assisted was for a friend in a wheelchair, one of hers was in screaming seizures. I remembered a vet friend who had an old, sick dog, and took it to another vet friend, and had him use the isoflourane gas to have her sleeping before the shot. The last thing she saw was her daddy reassuring her. So I requested this, and it was very calming to the ferret. When I saw out of the corner of my eye the vet getting the shot ready, I said I think I need to goto the waiting room now. My friends' husband picked up the little one later, but I got to bring home another one who was ready to go home after an operation. The American Vet Medical assoc. report : http://www.avma.org/noah/members/scientific/euthanasia/euthauth.pdf states very clearly that no animal should be conscious when being given "the shot". I find not all vets follow this practice, it needs to be asked for clearly. Take care, hugs to all Gary & the gang of fur Timmy's web site=<http://www.concentric.net/~Gferret/>; He's the ferret totally healed from "terminal lymphoma" without drugs or surgery. :) Timmy's tonic now available at http://www.ferretstore.com/holmed.html :888-833-7738 Timmy's Mailing List = http://www.onelist.com/subscribe.cgi/TimmyFerret Timmy's Forum = http://forums.delphi.com/m/main.asp?sigdir=TimmyFerret Another emil for me is <[log in to unmask]>, in case the indrirect.com has trouble. [Posted in FML issue 3537]