Oh, gosh, there have been at least 3 cases in which ferrets alerted people to fires, but I haven't heard of one in quite a while. There was one reported in the earliest issues of UFO (the first UFO) before it moved to New England. It may be that if you can track down the person in Massachusetts that he may have a copy. I know there was at least one in the newspapers after that which folks mentioned on the FML but I do not know if they were in the early issues that aren't in the Archives at http://listserv.cuny.edu/archives/ferret-search.html . Off hand, I couldn't find them so they may have been too early to be in the archives or I may just have missed them, though I did see other fire related past posts which could interest you. Meanwhile, a newspaper search by a reference librarian may help bring up those situations in which ferrets alerted people. We might have our second early adrenal neoplasia individual in 21 years. Right now we are watching Sherman closely because there is the chance that his fur loss is mechanical combined with shed partly because it is not as bilateral as is usually seen -- he's not clearly having a problem per anyone's observations yet -- and he's fine so far, but it's very possible that the sweet little guy may be having surgery soon if his symptom becomes more clear or anything else happens. He is about 3 years old now. [Posted in FML issue 4104]