There's no greater joy that Stinky-ratface gets than when he goes for a walk! I moved to Florida from Arizona (where nothing will grow) last May, and Stinky came with me, on the plane in the cargo hold (I was paranoid for the 8 hours, not to mention I had to switch planes in Dallas!). I took Stinky for a walk here one day, ran into a man in a wheelchair who said, "Hey, I ran over one of those once" (erf!) and ever since then, he's had fleas. I will take everyone's advice on getting rid of the fleas, but in the meantime, he doesn't get to go out and play. I feel so bad for him, but I don't want him getting any more fleas (which will make him feel worse). The good news is that I'll be returning to AZ next summer (and this time he's going on the plane WITH me -- does anyone know which airlines allow this?) so he can enjoy the outside world as much as he wants! Last year I lived in a dorm on ASU (AZ State) campus, and the dorm was tiny even for me (something like 10 x 10), so Stinky got to go for walks every day until he was exhausted and practically dead from all the excitement. I've heard of stories of people who will sling their fuzzies around their necks or ride their shoulder, but Stinky will have none of that! He doesn't care how far away from the ground he is, no siree, he'll jump off my shoulder and run like the wind! As far as he leash will allow him anyways. It was really fun walking him around campus because a lot of people didn't know what he was. There is nothing harder in the world than trying to explain to a group of foreign exchange students who don't know English very well what a "ferret" is. I came up a group of Spanish girls once just oooing and ahhhing over him, but there was just no translation for ferret. "Is it a rat?" "No, it's a ferret." "What is a ferret?" "Well, it's related to minks..." "Oh, a mink? Like fur coat?" Somewhere out there is a group of women who think some Americans walk minks instead of wearing them. :) And let me tell you, Stinky is a real attention grabber and a great way to meet a lot of guys (over 30,000+ people at ASU). Nobody can resist a fuzzy! He does get scared of large groups of people though, and start crawling into my arms and kind of cuddle/hide there, and shake real bad. But once I let my friend watch him while I went to get a drink in the student union, and when I came back out, he (stinky, not my friend hehehe) had crawled into a woman's pockets on her dress and fallen asleep there! I was kind of jealous too. :) Happy New Year to everyone and their fuzzies. Marilyn (German/Vietnamese, Unsophisticated Simian) Stinky (Albino, King of Cattle Killing) [Posted in FML issue 1060]