>And if they make you feel guilty afterwards, they just remember >that's what pets and kids do best - make us feel guilty. :-) So essentially my little fuzzbutts are surrogate Jewish Mothers? Oy vey... What did I do to deserve this? <g> Thanks for all the supportive and emphatic replies both yeah and nay both on and off the list. As I was rather begging the question with the term anthropomorphic, I feel a little better knowing, as one person put it, "they're lab animals, ferchrissakes" and when my needs come first I shan't feel any guilt letting them wallow in the hazardous and deprived environs of a 3 storey Marshall Mansion for a day, or even two. >Ferrets need MORE than 2 or 3 hours during which they can exercise >each day -- preferably a good deal more, though if you really throw >yourself into helping them stay active it MIGHT be possible to make >3 hours work okay (that is a hopeful statement). My mom worked in a lab during the 50's when they were testing Polio vaccines on ferrets. As much as she loved to feed and care for them in their tiny little cages (that was her job) she realized they served the hoomans first. Mine still do, and I don't pretend I have more care for them than I do my fellow hoomans, including myself. To do otherwise seems a displacement of priorities, don't you think? >Have places they can go to for relaxation between play bouts: dark >sleeping boxes An excellent suggestion, as I just got them a 25' dryer tube and think they need cubby-holes and hidey-boxes built in between the total length. I have some shoeboxes saved up and will use the old drain-pipe downspout technique and make them some. Just a reminder, as much to myself as anyone else: call 513-941-3343 and donate $13.00 and change for a 40 Lb bag of Cell-Sorb to the DMK rescue operation. Regards, J [Posted in FML 5748]