Thanks to Marti and the other anonymous contributor for the vet recommendations in the south S.F. Bay Area. As it turns out we've dealt with the Burbank Pet Hospital already. In fact I believe it was Dr Runyan who neutered our pet rabbit. The two suggested clinics are about equal distance from us and it's nice to have more than one ferret knowledgable vet available. I added the request for vet recommendations to my post as an after thought, but we could have used one this weekend. Friday Albert just wasn't acting normally; no appetite, listlessness and later a bit of diarrhea and vomiting. My daughter sat up with him most of the night giving him water with an eye dropper to keep him form getting dehydrated. She did locate a vet willing to see him but the vet admitted he wasn't familiar with ferrets. However by then Albert seemed to be better. He'd become more active, even nibbling at his food. By yesterday (Monday) he seemed to be his old self again, eating in spades and being normally mischievous. In fact, he appears to have fully recovered nearly as quickly as he became ill. Our theory is that he ate something that didn't agree with him and he was suffering from massive indigestion. He does tend to get in to things. I found Mark Ouellette comments on traveling by air most interesting because of a somewhat parallel experience my daughter had last summer. At the time she was living in Las Vegas (where she got Albert) and had come home for a visit with a friend. They decided to return by air (on Air West, I'm pretty sure) but opted for different travel arrangements than Mark's for Albert. They smuggled him back in her back pack. I felt very uncomfortable about this at the time but my daughter insisted, seeing this as the only affordable way to take Albert back with her. Somehow they managed to pull it off without incident. I cringe to think what would have happen had they gotten caught. I also appreciated the comments about being cautious here in "ferret-free" CA. Are you reading this daughter? Many thanks, cobra [Posted in FML issue 0824]