Here's yet another suggestion for bringing your ferret outdoors with you when you want to study. Plan to spend the first hour or more just playing with your ferret-- get him/her good and tired, so that the little one will curl up and sleep when you sit down to read. Just bring something that the ferret would want to sleep in (like your book bag or backpack even). I've been using a figure-8 harness with fairly good results, but whoever it was that observed that the ferret's weight can change enough to make the harness not fit sure was right-- after Amelia slipped out once, I no longer assume it's correctly adjusted when it goes on. Regina (an AMerican who went to Canada and bought a Canadian uberfrettchen-- it's people like me that will make America fall!) and Amelia (I'm too sleepy and fuzzy and cuddly to start a trade war) [Posted in FML issue 1227]