To Christine and any who will put up trees this Yule... Please forego the tinsel icicles.. They can cause severe intestinal damage. Last year we attached our tree to the wall with string to ensure no tipping. We just tied one end to the trunk and the other to a nail. Presto, stable tree. Earlier, someone posted about all the sugary treats like candy canes she was going to put on the tree for her fuzzbutts... I am under the impression that they shouldn't reallly get more than a few licks as the sugar isn't too good for them.... For xmas this year our beasties wil get: 1 whole well-washed lemon for Pepper. she loves to roll it around and claw at it, the smell is fascinating I guess. A few cheerios. A few raisins. A baking powder biscuit to stash... (we'll swipe it later). And the coup de grace: a set of Chinese exercise harmony balls... I understand they'll go wild for them. On the subject of names for a group of ferrets: I loved all the neat names FML'rs have come up with... But one of the original venereal names was never mentioned. This, from _A Book of St Albans_ 1486 which contained 164 Nouns of Assemblage or Nouns of Venery: Ferrets: a fesnyng. Other nifty ones were a cete of badgers, a clowder of cats, a skulk of foxes, a kindle of kittens, a murmuration of starlings, and a descent of woodpeckers... How about a hassle of Hobs? When you go around just 30 seconds too late corner after corner... sigh... A scramble of Jills? Steve, Carolyn and Peppermint and BIFF!! [Posted in FML issue 1409]