Ah yes, another lovely Saturday in the Wherret Ferrets Halfway House and Ferretry. Some of the usual, some of the not so usual. Dixie gives birth to a single kit and eats it. That's not very usual. The phone rings - that happens a lot. So the woman on the phone tells me she had adopted a ferret from the SPCA for her 12 year old son and they were having trouble with her. Seems she was nipping them a little too much and although they were very fond of little "Keisha" they thought she may be a little too rambunctious for them. So I suggested they bring her to me and I would trade them Keisha for an older, more sedate male named Willie. They liked the sound of that, said they would come right over. They did and I answered the door. Mum was standing there with a little cage with Keisha inside. "So this is her" I said, carefully taking the cage from her and placing on the floor on the *other* side of the room. I handed her son Willie "This is a ferret," I said, "What you have brought me, is a mink." Mouths drop open all around. Seems the local SPCA can't tell their whole hobs from their spayed females, but worse, they can't tell their ferrets from their mink. I'll say she was a little nippy - I'm staring at a juvenile mink in my ferretry, and she's staring back with a rather wicked glint in her eye. The SPCA were informed immediately by a somewhat distressed and dare I say damn pissed off mum, who let that "ferret" play with her four children. The SPCA phones me, wants to know what I plan to do with the mink. I asked them how they managed to adopt it out without knowing what it was. They still want to know what I plan to do. I asked them what they plan to do when I tell the local papers about how they adopted out a wild animal and called a tame animal. We seem to be at a standstill. So - does anyone know what I should do? This critter, while certainly not a very nice pet, uses a litterbox, eats kibble and crawls back into her cage after playtime to sleep. She is obviously not *wild*. The local wildlife rehab tells me she's too tame to release, so they will probably destroy her. Now what? This doesn't seem fair. Agriculture Canada isn't open on the weekends, so no help from them. I don't want to see this animal destroyed, but nor do I want the SPCA to come swooping down like the FBI and take her back because they will most likely destroy her too. Any suggestions? Sheena Wherret Ferrets Halfway House and Ferretry Ferret Association of Greater Vancouver [Posted in FML issue 1637]