We just got in today's mail an urgent plea by our local ferret group (LAFF) to attend a meeting of the Animal Advisory Board on Wednesday, June 21 at 5:00 p.m. in Leesburg, VA. It seems that a few overzealous souls are trying to propose an ordinance which would regulate the ownership of exotic animals and ban others outright. At the heart of this controversy is the wolf-hybrid. However, they are mentioning ferrets in the same breath. We need to present a solid presence at this meeting to let them know that the State of Virginia considers ferrets a "Domestic" animal and they should leave them alone. If you can attend and need further info, drop us a line and we'll post the street address. This might get really strange since this group has already raided a family's home and took their pet claiming it was a wolf-hybrid (when in fact it was a husky-malamute mix). The pet was put down very quickly before a DNA test could be performed which wouldn't have proven its parentage. This same group is already proposed some strange regulations for ownership of ferrets and I think this should be "nipped in the bud". All these pictures we now have of our ferrets and our baby (including a new batch of our son checking out a 4 week old kit 'eye to eye') will come in handy. We're getting several of these blown up to bring along. Incidentally, we've already gotten requests for digitized (or scanned) copies of some of the pictures. It will take a few days to see if we can accomplish this. Does anyone know a site were we can put a few of them (Pam Greene - would you have a spot for some of these?) We also have pictures of our kits -- we're competing in several photgraphic contests and used up about 5 rolls of film <G>. We've gotten the really great ones down to about 25. bill and diane killian zen and the art of ferrets [Posted in FML issue 1228]