- how many of you, had no close pets as children, but later in life became animal and ferret people? - how many of you, had a couple of standard pets such as dogs or cats as children? - how many of you had close contact with more unusual species of animals as children? I myself was a cat person for many years. At 14 months old I fell in love with a kitten, Murphy, and was owned by him until his death when I was 16. My mother also has told me that I had a cat protector,Sam, when I was an infant. He wouldn't let my mother wake me to nurse, but would go get her if I was awake. We also had parakeets when I was little. While I was growing up we had several cats and dogs, not to mention turtles, rabbits(the cat brought them home alive), fish, hampsters and gerbils but not much in the way of unusual. Now having a younger brother, and being a tomboy of sorts, we had the obvious things, frogs, toads, newts, and salamanders most of which were set free again before they died. I didn't find out about the really interesting pets until I was in college. This is where I met my first ferret. Knowing what I know now about them, I know that she wasn't well taken care of, and I feel sorry for her. However, I am trying to raise my children to be knowledgable about all pets. So my house will probably get pretty interesting over the next few years. ~Nikki~ [Posted in FML issue 5270]