Dear Ferret Folks- A very happy mink memory from my vault of "I love him to death" memories involving my nephew-- Three or four winters ago my nephew Alexander, his mother (my sister) and I were driving through a stretch of swampy woods. As an aside, yes New England does indeed have a lot of great, dark, mud-sucking swamps because we are only recently de-glaciated. They are full of high-bush blueberries and recently, beaver works.(I told you so Al Johnson, yes I did!) Think very dark stretches of forest and frozen over black water with clumps of dried grasses and sedges sticking up out of the ice. We were in my old Chevy Astro van. Not the best on mileage, but with acres of wrap around glass and visibility front and back. Alexander was in the back seat in his mandatory kid high chair. Sister and I were up front. Alex was around four at the time. I was driving slowly, there were a few inches of new snow on the ground and I really, *really* didn't want to skid and wind up in the broad stretch of water and ice just to the left of the road. Suddenly, out of the pines ahead of us as we rounded a curve stepped a magnificent dark minky fellow, jet black against the snow. You could see the padding of muscles beneath the fur. Little white chin. He looked right at us, raised his head and sniffed the air. He wasn't the least bit intimidated by us. It was *his* swamp.I slowed to a stop so everyone could see. My sister and I made squealy noises more appropriate to teenaged fans at a Jonas Brothers concert than to a nature walk. But my nephew won the day by taking a deep breath and bellowing "FEWWET!" at the top of his lungs. I love that kid. "FEWWET!", indeed. Alexandra in MA [Posted in FML 6826]