Okay, those who know this real-life story can skip past it, but other won't and it is probably the funniest thing that has ever happened to me involving a ferret. Once upon a time -- long, long ago -- in a land we will call "New Jersey" -- your narrator was young, well younger, and could do justice to things like shortie tops. With some your narrator would also wear a strapless bra. It happened on just such a day that she and her Prince in Shining Armor (shining car, at least) decided to take their princeling, the young Hjalmar, a skittish kit of great renown, for a ride to acquaint him with automobile transport and the local environs. These included that most miraculous place of grand wizardry, Wagner's Dairy, where cream clotted the top of their own milk, the milk came in bottles, the homemade ice cream was a weapon against all enemies with high cholesterol, and the eggnog transported those fortunate enough to buy some to planes of unimagined rapture. Besides, their elderly family ferret, Haleakala, loved visiting there. Being of great morality and sturdy shanks, the Prince offered to complete their tasks while your narrator remained outside across from the stalls with Hjalmar. In a short while they were joined by a most elegant older gentleman, clad in precious cashmere, who showed great interest in praising the princeling as was his natural due. It was then that the event occurred. Within the barn a most blood-curtling sound ensued. "Mooooooooooooooooo!" The princeling, being of great intelligence dove for the best place of safety... Okay, maybe you figured out what happened then, or maybe you didn't. Hjalmar leapt down my shirt and then descended, emerging sitting startled and blinking in one cup of my strapless bra which by then was hanging around my waist as a kit sling. Moral of the story: always have a way to catch your falling star within a pocket when the cow jumps over the moon, or something like that. Mary wrote: >The concern with raw meats is for the humans in the house, not the >ferrets. Ferrets, like other carnivores, are built to eat raw meat. Yes, and no. Yes, they are more resistant to some types of infection like salmonella but even that they can and do get, and there are always concerns like bovine mycobacterium (Bovine TB), E. coli, etc, as well. It's actually a topic of debate among vets. Among vets some feel that the infections are more than offset by improved health, others feel that is subjective and not consistent with their own observations. On to cook or not (ALL posts from vets): Here are just a few things to help you. (There are more if you search.) http://fhl.sonic-weasel.org/browse.php?msg=SG6619 http://fhl.sonic-weasel.org/browse.php?msg=YG5199 http://fhl.sonic-weasel.org/browse.php?msg=YG5668 http://fhl.sonic-weasel.org/browse.php?msg=SG6258 http://fhl.sonic-weasel.org/browse.php?msg=YG9058 http://fhl.sonic-weasel.org/browse.php?msg=YG202 http://fhl.sonic-weasel.org/browse.php?msg=YG9887 http://fhl.sonic-weasel.org/browse.php?msg=SG7171 http://fhl.sonic-weasel.org/browse.php?msg=YG168 http://fhl.sonic-weasel.org/browse.php?msg=YG1002 http://fhl.sonic-weasel.org/browse.php?msg=YG3963 (Okay, it really is a raw food thing when you see one route of transmission.) From a non-vet veterinary nutrition professional: http://fhl.sonic-weasel.org/browse.php?msg=YG1624 (BTW, I used to LOVE steak tartare (which is yummy and did not make me stink) but chose to stop eating it years ago. Don't personally eat raw eggs, unpasturized milk, or any brains, either, though Dad wishes I did. Decades ago I got an E. coli variant more common to chimps (with whom I worked) and the bacteria hung around in me for over three months providing one heck of a weight loss scheme but also really ruining one semester, so I got gun-shy on routes of such pathogens.) [Posted in FML issue 4640]