As far as hammocks go, we have a ferret hammock in our ferrets' very large cage, and they love to sleep in it. I purchased it for about $10 from a pet products catalog. I can find the phone number if anyone is interested. Those of you interested in finding out whether your ferrets will respond to squeeky toys might try the following: Go to your local hunting/fishing sporting goods store and ask if they sell a squirrel call. A squirrel call is basically a small rubber air bellows with one or two reeds that make a squeeking and/or grunting noise designed to get a response from squirrels in the wild (presumably so that you can then find and shoot them... but why would you want to?) My ferrets will come running when I mimmic their own chattering with the call. The call I have is designed to make two distict noises, one that sounds like a squirrel chattering (and somewhat like a ferret playing) and the other that is supposed to sound like a baby squirrel in distress. Not having heard any distressed baby squirrels personally, I couldn't attest to its authenticity, but I do know that Princess (our female albino) comes running and will climb all over me trying to find what's making the noise. We figure it must be her maternal instinct (even though she's neutered.) We can't decide, however, whether Princess wants to rescue the baby squirrel or EAT it! :) Princess will even occassionally talk back to the call, although its a very low, quiet grunting. One thing that has eluded us (me and my girlfriend, Tatia) over our seven years of ferret ownership is an effective way to punish the little buggers. We tried spankings (with and without rolled up newspaper,) spraying water in their faces, sharp "NO"s, and the only thing that seemed to have any effect at all was incarceration. Our ferrets do hate baths, but it seems like a lot of trouble to give them a bath every time they are bad (boy, we'd be in the tub constantly.) Lately, though, I've been trying something that looks like it has possibilities-- dipping their hind feet in cold water. Ferrets have very sensitive feet and DO NOT like to get them cold. Presto and Princess have been teaming up to get on top of my bathroom counter and stealing the toothpaste, rearranging the toiletries and basically being healthy, inquisitive, and annoying ferrets. Every time I catch them up there now, I run a bit of tap water in the sink and dip their hind feet in it (just for an instant.) There is no doubt in their little ferret brains that this is punishment! My entire apartment is carpeted, so they dry off almost immediately, but it does seem to hurt their feelings. So far they haven't stopped getting on the counter, but they are being a lot more sneaky about it. If I catch them at it they try really hard to get down before I get to them, because they know what's coming. I wouldn't reccommend this punishment if your ferrets don't have access to carpeting or towels to dry their feet on, or if you live in a particularly cold environment (it's 95 degrees here almost every day now.) Wouldn't want the little demons getting sick, now would we? Marcus, Tatia, Presto, Pricess, and Taz [Posted in FML issue 0509]