Dear Lars, Please disregard my input on the minks as pets. Like I said I was a little girl and that was longer ago than I like to admit so my memory may be tainted. As far as I know my Opa never did have difficulties with his minks but then I wasn't there all the time and he had a five or six (what I could count from an old picture with the minks, my sister and myself). My Opa loved animals too but he was from the old school and his policy was that if one of his animals bit him they were shot. I may not have noticed if one was missing or he may have lied about its whereabouts in order to spare us the details. My mother has come clean about the disappearance of our mice and a few others over the years. I'll have to ask her about the minks because a number of pets we hand raised had surrogate mothers and toy "mice" made of mink. Although I think stuffing pets and the like it grotesque my grandfather always kept the pelts so there is no telling if they died of natural causes or if he put them down. Best of Luck, Irena...Lucy's mom [Posted in FML issue 1491]