I always tell myself I won't go into Scamps', it always depresses me... Scamps' is a "mall pet store", for lack of another description. Anyway, I went into the one at Lloyd Center in Portland, OR, just briefly, no idea what I was thinking...they have 20 (yes, 20) ferrets in one of those 2 story black cages that fits, maybe, 2, somewhat comfortably, as long as they allowed out to stretch their legs. Granted, these are baby ferrets, but still, 20???? All stuffed into this cage. One gigantic bowl of food, no litter box. They are priced at $99 -- $70 off the regular price. Indicates to me they seem to want to sell these critters. They have cages that are built into the front of the store, so you can see the inhabitants as you are walking by...1 cages holds extremely un-moving hermit crabs, 1 cage holds an expensive puppy dog, 1 cage is empty, and 1 cage...holds 2 betta fish containers. And, here are _20_ ferrets stuffed into a little cage halfway into the store. I tried to talk to one of the people who work there, at that particular time they were extremely busy and the rest of the store gave off an aura of busy-ness, with people walking in and out, in and out...nobody, though, I noticed, holding a ferret. Or even wanting one. Some of you can imagine the smell coming from _20_ ferrets stuffed into one cage. Some of the customers sure thought it was stinky. Ugh. Minta & Ralphie [Posted in FML issue 4439]