Hi, Marie and all, I don't know if I'm saying something here that everyone knows, and I don't want to be an alarmist...but just in case: My advisor in grad school had a cat that ate some cotton thread (or maybe nylon). Several days later, he had to have surgery to repair a perforated colon, where the string had gotten hung up and rubbed against the inside of the colon repeatedly and cut it (sort of like an internal papercut.) I don't know what the signs of a perforated colon are in a ferret, but I believe this cat acted just like it had a *really* bad tummy ache, and was very lethargic. Maybe some sort of abdominal cavity infection? Considering how fast things can go "south" for a sick ferret, you might want to keep a close eye out. This was news to me that this could happen, so I thought it might be worth passing on, in case there are others out there with fuzzies that have a taste for textiles. Cheers, Eric [Posted in FML issue 1564]