I smiled when I read Mary Jo's warning to Todd not to wait too long. I did, and now I have a ferret so originally named, Baby. Since someone recently asked about how other ferrets got their names, I'm going to babble my story. When I was preparing to get my first ferret everyone kept asking me what I would name her. I insisted I wouldn't know until I had her. Well, my Mom went shopping with me one day for cage and accessories and kept bugging me about the name. When I finally got annoyed (imagine getting annoyed while spending a day shopping with a Mom (-: ) she explained that she didn't want to keep referring to my future, nonexistent as of yet, ferret as "it". So I told her to just refer to her as "my baby" since that's what she'd be. Well that night while falling asleep I thought that maybe I better start getting some name ideas in my head. For some reason I was stuck on M, but was coming up with only names I'd heard before: Misha, Mica, then suddenly Mikette (mi ket) popped into my head. Then I realized that it kind of meant "my baby ferret" (mi for my and ket for kit) which is what I had told my mom to call her. Well, I decided that I loved it, but would wait til I had her to be sure it fit her. Not long after that day I finally picked out a sweet little kit (this was pre-computer and shelter awareness for me) and brought her home. I wasn't decided on the name yet, but just after she woke up in her new home she decided to get busy with her kit job - biting me! New to ferrethood all I could do was quickly and repeatedly reprimand her "NO Mikette!" I had no choice, I had to call her something quick! But I love that name for her and what it means to me (only downside is that some people think I'm saying "my cat"). Well, a year later I got a second ferret. I had been doing the debate and wanted a ferret buddy for Mikette. I saw a tiny ferret while shopping for supplies (still precomputer) and just needed to get her. I didn't have a second cage (for intro's) set up or my carrier with me, so I came back the next day. The next day they wouldn't sell her. Said she was sick and were "watching" her and the others. I was worried about this tiny baby not going to a vet and just being watched. But they wouldn't sell her, wouldn't hold her for me, and wouldn't transfer her to another petco where a ferret friend worked and would nurse her. Well it was a long battle but finally they put her out back for care and held her for me til they would sell her. Two weeks later I got my little baby. I took her home and decided she needed a name to reflect the long battle to make her mine. I thought of Kerita (Kind of meaning "little wanted one" as in querer for want) or Pelita (for little fight, pelar). In the meantime I called her Baby. I finally settled on Kerita, but called her Baby Kerita because we were all used to it. Well Baby is all that stuck. She is now and will always be Baby. But it really fits! She is big but completely baby like! My third ferret Jillie was from the wonderful Gimmee Shelter and luckily she came with a name. She was named after the woman Jill who helped to rescue her, and of course I wouldn't have changed that! Dooks! Risa [Posted in FML issue 4175]