We have yet another new ferret, bringing our current count up to five. She is a six-month albino named Gretchen. The young man who owned her had her legally in his apartment for a while, but the building changed ownership and the new owners forbade ferrets. He attempted to keep her in hiding for a while, but decided that it wasn't fair to her and brought her into our pet store, where Kirk and I fell in love with her while I was giving her her nail clipping and bath. Unfortunately, the people who sold her to the guy mentioned that she had her first shot, but negelected to tell him she would need others, so she was completely unvaccinated apart from her Marshall Farms shot. So the first thing we did was hussle her over to Ferrets, Etc and begin her distemper series. Tia needed her booster at the same time anyway. Gretchen is quite well nip trained and fairly well litter boxed trained, and quite a sweet ferret overall. [Sidenote: We certainly have a lot of rescue-type ferrets come into out store.] Next thing, we build our ferrets their own bedroom last night. It's a six foot by seven foot square in our bedroom (they now have more space in our bedroom than we do) built out of 2x4s and particle board. It's four feet high all the way around except over the "gate", which is two feet high (easy for Kirk to step over, although I need a box on either side so I can step over without knocking a wall down). We're planning to add a two foot half door on hinges and with a latch over the gate part, so when Coffee gets bored she can't do a flying leap over the door. :) There is a tarp on the floor underneath so they can make all the mess they want and won't ruin the carpet. We also have their cat tree, their drain pipe tube, their small cage (we got rid of the big one when we started giving them run of the bedroom), their carry cage, a litter box, food and water, and blankets and towels scattered around to snuggle into. We're planning to make and add a couple ramps later, so they can get in and out at will when we want them too; although for now, we're happy leaving then in there -- gives us the chance to clean house and find all the silverware Daphne has hidden away. :) Since we're showing all of our babies, I started talking to one of my managers about good shampoos to highlight colors and such things. He recommended the Coat Handler shampoo and conditioner. We got the 15 to 1 16oz bottles yesterday. A touch expensive, but it'll last forever and ever, because it's made to be diluted with one tablespoon of shampoo or conditioner to one cup of water. We picked up a couple of 8 oz spray bottles and diluted the shampoo and conditioner into those, and will simply spray it onto the ferrets, rather than dumping it into my hand or onto the ferret from a squeeze bottles. It's a trick I picked up from Marcie, the groomer at the store. Basically, we now have shampoo for a LONG, LONG time. :) It's good stuff too., Michelle -- Meet my pets. The ferrets (Taz, Coffee, Daphne, and Tia), the gerbils (28 permanent residents and various babies), the zebra mouse (Racer), the rats (five of them), the budgie (Sky), the cockatiel (Summer), and the fish (various). [Posted in FML issue 1257]