After joining this list 3 years ago to learn about ferrets and reading every single issue from #1 on, all the time wanting a ferret more and more, I finally have one! My wife (who was originally against owning a ferret -- see my message a few issues ago about how to convince a SO to accept ferrets) actually instigated the sudden ferret acquirance. A week ago on Wednesday, we were killing time waiting for a table at a restaurant in Boulder by browsing in the pet shop next door. My wife asked to hold one of the 5 baby sable ferrets the store had and within 2 seconds became extremely attached. He's a Marshall Farms ferret and only 7 weeks old, so I wasn't too thrilled about the potential future medical problems that come with him, but there was no telling Michelle no (how could I say no to something I had wanted for so long?!?). We put down a deposit on him and left him in the pet store's care until the next morning when we could bring a proper travel cage for him to come home in and spend enough time getting the proper supplies. And the pet store (Colorado Pet Supply, I think) took very good care of him. The clerk who showed him to us originally played with him before Michelle asked to hold him and for a while after we reserved him, and owns 2 ferrets of his own. His knowledge was impressive, especially compared to a mall-pet-store clerk's knowledge (what knowledge? :-)). I named the new guy Nikkei (you closet investors in the group know where that name comes from, and yes, I plan to use more names from the series). He has been slow to start but is picking up size, speed, and squirminess every day. He was good about not going to the dangerous places that we haven't had time to ferretproof until yesterday, when he started his ferret-proofing with glee. He got his first bath yesterday after he discovered the underside of the fireplace grate and the fun of rolling in ashes. We are working on the litter-training inside his cage, and not giving him long enough outside the cage to need a litter-pan (we give him many 15-20 minute play sessions during the day, so he gets plenty of exercise time). He had a lot of fun with the litter the first time we put it in his pan (we didn't have quite as much fun cleaning the litter up from the 5-foot radius around the cage :-)). I started him on a mix of food immediately so he wouldn't get fixated on any one kind. He shows equal liking for Science Diet, IAMS, and Purina Ferret Chow so far. As treats go, he could care less about raisins, eats cheerios, but only after they've been in his food bowl a while and never from my hand, and finally has decided he likes ferretone. We haven't tried anything else on him yet. The following objects have become toys: dryer hose (immediate success!), whiffle golf ball (also successful), empty toilet paper tube (much fun!), leather deck shoes and winter boots (not meant to be toys, but he sure likes them), my leather bomber jacket ("So this is what the inside of a cow looks like! Man, I've gotta get that book on killing cows so I can get my own cow to live in!"), an old sock, knotted (not much success at all except when he is in his cage and extremely bored), and finally a jingle bell (also an unintentional toy, but BOY does he go crazy over it!). Try "ferret fishing" -- put a larger-than-ferret-mouth size jingle bell on a 2-foot length of sturdy ribbon and let your ferret try to catch the jingle bell. A really great toy combination has been putting the whiffle golf ball inside the dryer hose and putting the hose in a loop with an inch of space between each end. How many laps will your ferret do? Nikkei did at least 5. Well, this message is getting too long, but I wanted to share my good news with all of you. Kirk, Michelle, and Nikkei (destroyer of deck shoes, at least in his own mind) Westminster, CO [Posted in FML issue 1094]