Hello again everyone, First off I would like to thank everyone who responded to my historical questions. I tried to e-mail everyone personally, but some came back as undeliverable mail. Sorry if you didn't get your thank you, but I did try. There does seem to be some disagreement about the ancestor of domestic ferrets as some of you wrote that it was the European polecat while others claimed it was a North African polecat. There were more people who said European polecat, but I assume they are both pretty similar anyway. Now for my CFS! My SO and I just put up our X-Mass tree (no chemicals in the water and it was a fir). Well, Jitterbug was not really interested, except to take a sip or two out of the tree stand, but Monkey had a blast! She dunked her entire face in the water and then decided she would take a little swim. I couldn't believe it, but she voluntarily got completely in the pan and stayed there splashing around until she was soaked! (This from the biggest complainer at bath time). I was worried about decorating the tree so I only put on one ornament as a test and watched closely. It was a glass (really plastic I think) icicle (sp?) and Monkey immediately pounced on it. She grabbec it with her little hands causing the bough it was hanging on to bend slightly and then spring away, tossing the ornament in the air (still attached to the branch though) and causing Monkey to engage in a war dancing frenzy. She was fascinated and repeated the procedure countless times. Then she discovered she didn't even need the icicle because the lower branches would all spring up if she attached them too. I was rolling on the floor laughing! Now about CLIMBING - Monkey then decides to climb up the entire 7 foot tree, all the way to the top!!! She was having the best time - she's less than a year so it was her first x-mass tree. After climbing/sliding/falling down the tree (all at the same time by the way) she discovered the presents under the tree. Jitterbug, meanwhile, left her very own "present" under the tree. Monkey decides that all the presents are hers and trys to unwrap some and just haul off all the others to her hidey hole. I kept bringing them back, but I'm not sure how I'm going to decorate the tree given her inclination to climb. I suggested not decorating the tree, but my SO put his foot down and proclaimed that the ferrets did NOT make the decisions in this household. Ha Ha Ha ... who is he kidding? So I am going to try to tie the ornaments on really tight. Meanwhile, many trips to the hardware store later, chicken wire and screws seemed to be the best solution to the stove problem. I used a kind of chickenwire with tiny holes (about 1 centimeter by 1 centimeter) which may be what everyone reffered to as hardware cloth. I had to use screws with heads bigger than the openings so it would be firmly secured. But success at last is mine. (Monkey says "You may have won this time, but I'll be back!) On an unrelated note, Jitterbug is scratching but has no fleas. I think I saw someone else post the same problem. What did you do to help the dry skin? Any suggestions are greatly appreciated. And Jitterbug's coat is also not very soft. She eats the same food,IAMs, as Monkey (who has the softest coat I've ever seen on a ferret), but Jitter's coat seems so much more scraggley. Is this just because she is older, or is there something I can do about it? Thanks, Love and Dooks to all, Rebecca, Jitterbug and Monkey [Posted in FML issue 1786]