After reading the mailing list and all the literature I could find, then tempering all that reading with what I have heard of the real life behavior of ferrets, I have a little carpet shark of my own. I adopted her from the Ferret Shelter in Ottawa. Her name is Mocha (Inez, I have to say that you inspired me to give her this name), and she is a beautiful chocolate-tipped white color. She is an older ferret, about 4 years old, and so I was warned that she might not live much longer, but I love her already. She was used by ferret breeders to produce as many babies as possible, then somehow got to the shelter. Most people want baby ferrets, but my heart went out to this one. I want to give her a good life, to make up for mistreatment at the hands of breeders. Anyway, she loves to give kisses, and is curious but not hyper... a quality that makes my iguana ("Data") happy. Pegge Clarke (who runs the Ottawa ferret shelter) had brought over a very young ferret, but she was too hyper and tended to scare Data. Now Data just watches this strange furry addition to the home roam around. Never the twain shall meet, which is best for the both of them. :) (BTW, in the second sentence of the above paragraph, "she was too hyper" is in reference to the female ferret, and not Pegge, who gets along spendidly with Data. :) Looking forward to the new experiences, Lorene & Data the wonder iguana & Mocha the ??? ferret [Posted in FML issue 0739]