Meltdown has begun pigging out -- probably trying to gain back the weight she lost. Jumpstart is up to a small fraction of an ounce below two pounds now. Next week he'll get his 12 week distemper shot. He and the other four say that we have not spent enough time with them while getting Meltie past the most recent blip and they are correct. So, I'll make this short and get down to family business! Oh, a clarification: I don't know of any current domestic strains of ringtails, but they were kept for an extended time to deal with household and barn rodents before cats were available, and then until they were affordable. (An ancestor of Steve's who was not far back spent the equivalent of $3,000 for a housecat at one point -- and we are NOT talking Rag Doll or anything else fancy -- it was a plain domestic shorthair to handle rodents.) It's a historic note. Think it's firmly established here that there are and have been a number of NW domestics, including ones in what is now the U.S. Sukie [Posted in FML issue 1850]