OK, what is it with the war dance? Does it have any real significance, or is it just an example of how far ferrets are from their wild past? When I play with my Belka she bounces backward and waves her head from side to side, pretty much oblivious to what I'm doing. It's a bit like swinging one's fists with one's eyes closed and hoping to hit something --- though I don't think she's really serious about this now that we've established our relative positions on the food chain :-). I mean, I understand how a ferret can do this if it's happy (like about getting in my bed and rearranging everything on it!), but war-dancing seems like a pretty impractical way to fight. Perhaps it is more effective in some specific situation, like inside a mouse-burrow? Sergej Roytman [Posted in FML issue 0582]