Chris, I was ready to jump in on Bob's comments but I see you beat me to it. Not that I don't appreciate Bob's opinion, everyone's entitled to theirs and his just happens to be different. What I objected to was the errors and you seem to have caught most. As near as anyone can tell, the ferret was domesticated about 3000 years ago from a species of North African weasel that no longer exists. It appears that he original "ferrets" were red eyed whites ("albino") so should not be considered "Intentional Freaks of nature", but are closer to the original ancestor of the Domestic Ferret. Some believe that the various colors of the Domestic Ferret may be a result of cross breeding with the European Polecat or with other Mustela. [I've not heard the above before about an african ferret species. It seems unlikely because of how readily ferrets can interbreed with Mustela Furo. It also seems rather unlikely that significant populations of albino ferrets ever existed except for interference (selection) by man. In a population of animals, without man's interference, albinism fades out to occasional births. Like in humans, tigers, grizzly bears etc. Though I know that the Swedes are rather confused about this... (Sorry Urban ;-)] As far as "personalities" based on color, I've had over 150 Domestic Ferrets through our shelter, and I find that the individual personalities differ as much from ferret to ferret within a color group as among different color groups. As far as the "cutesy attitude that lots of pets owners in general have dressing up their pets and taking them to see Santa Claus at the pet store at Christmas time. " I used to think it was weird too until I got to meet one of the people *and* his ferret who enjoyed doing this . The ferret adored his owner. In fact I've never seen a closer bond between an animal of any kind and its owner. What's more, they both seemed to take as much pleasure in the ferret dressing in a costume, as did the kids that got to meet them. Dick B. [Posted in FML issue 0964]