By the way, I was an only child growing up, -- Hey now, that's a little interesting. My sibs are decades older. I was raised as an only child too. Anyway, so far it's looking like a lot of people were raised with animals, and various kinds. But not all. I find Laura's situation interesting. Particularly since she was not groomed as a pet person, but was born artistic and open minded. Hmm. I hope people keep answering. I'm really curious to see if ferret/animal people were raised that way or if those who just so happen to turn into ferret/animal people later in life have a whole diff kind of personality than the rest of the population. In other words, are there any ferret/animal people out there who had no exposure growing up and who are very conventional today but turned into animal people? Is "Susie" the housekeeper here? Lol. Wolfy [Moderator's note: I was not raised with animals at all. My mother was afraid of anything with 4 or more legs and most things with two. Fortunately I didn't share her feelings, but unfortunately there is not much one can do about it while growing up at home. While I had contact with animals outside the house whenever possible, I finally worked weekends at an animal hospital years later, partly to help me to understand animals' psyche -- I had some catching up to do. BIG] [Posted in FML issue 5269]