Hi Here in the UK ferrets are generally seen more as animals kept by old men who keep them in a hutch at the end of the garden and use them for rabbiting. There are lots of misconceptions about what they might be like (vicious, dirty, smelly, "feed 'em bread and milk or they'll turn on you" etc) but exotic is not really one of them. Keeping them indoors like a cat or dog however, is seen as eccentric... I'm preaching to the converted, I know, but the California thing totally incomprehensible - what about dogs getting rabies/biting people? Or keeping/riding horses for that matter, I'm sure many more people have died/got hurt as a result of that than ferret keeping! My thoughts are with you who live in places where ferrets are illegal. C [Posted in FML issue 4255]