Laura Herrick, my sympathies on the loss of your little guy. How old was he? And you don't know what happened? That must make it even harder. Tracy Baker, I agree with you IN PRINCIPLE. However, I can't agree with the idea of aiming a shotgun at ANYONE, much less some kind of g-man. No matter how wrong, stupid, and heinous they are, you must not sink to their level. Also, using firearms or other violence hurts our cause, IMHO. Nevertheless, like you, I would certainly NEVER hand my babies over to any of those guys. If I knew there was any chance of them being confiscated, you can bet they would be outta here and safely hidden. Then when the jerks came to collect them, I would say that they ran away and I had no idea where they were. Go ahead! Search the house! Ain't no ferrets here! Ferret Undeground, anyone? BTW, in my brief experience with ferrets, I did adopt a pair of sweeties that had spent very little time out of their cage. Chip, a gorgeous BEW, was definitely fat. However, after a month of daily time out of his cage, chasing cats and weasel dancing my husband whenever he irons, Chip has slimmed down just fine. Hasn't learned to iron, though. Kat [Posted in FML issue 1601]