I have a question. My husband and I have 2 ferrets and no children. People keep telling us that when we have kids we should not keep the ferrets for various reasons. These range from things like ferrets are supposedly jealous of babies [to this I say I was jealous of my little brother when he was born and I'm glad no one got rid of me :)] to ferret poop is lethal to babies. To me, these things sound more like rumors than fact. We are not expecting a child yet or anything, but even when we do, I do not want to give up my babies. They are just as much a part of our family as any person. This is really bothering me. If anyone has any *substantiated* information on this topic, or could guide me to a source that would, I would greatly appreciate it. On a lighter note, I would also like to ask that whoever was going to sew up their couch to keep the ferrets out, could you please let us know if it worked and how you did it? We have had to limit the time our ferrets spend running around the house partly because we could not keep them from climbing up into the couch. Any help here would be appreciated also :). Also, just to put in my 2 cents worth, something that has worked for us when clipping the ferrets' nails is putting a few drops of Ferretone on their tummies first. This keeps them occupied, with their attention focused on their tummies, and we can wiggle their hands around and clip their nails and they hardly seem to notice. This also worked well at the vet when they had their regular checkup and shots. Well, we didn't put it on their tummy that time, we just had a dropperful that I gave them as the vet was giving them the shot. It worked well. Mittens didn't even seem to notice the shot and Jasmine just flinched a little, but kept licking the Ferretone anyway. Personally, I have been amazed at the distracting powers of Ferretone :). Well, sorry this got a little long, but I hope it helps someone. ***************************************** &="=& ()-"-() * (@ @) \& &/ * \o/ \o/ * ------o00---00o--------o00---00o------- * Jasmine Mittens * ***************************************** [Posted in FML issue 1635]