No, this has nothing to do with MF numbers... The other evening I was watching Cully stash small piles of food all around my parents' guest room (moving day will be interesting, when it comes). On his way from the food dish to a stash spot, he dropped one piece of food. I picked it up and chucked it back in the dish. When he reached his spot, he put down the pieces of food in his mouth, and carefully inspected them-- I could swear he was counting them, "one, two... one, two... one, two... but where's three?" He then went back and looked for the piece he'd dropped, which of course he didn't find. Silly ferret. I don't know-- what do people think? Can ferrets count? Of course he may have been remembering that he dropped a piece, but he really did seem to be counting the pieces he still had. Just how clever are they... Did I understand the letter quoted from the ASPCA correctly in that the organization appears to believe that domestic ferrets and European stoats are the one and the same species? Perhaps we shouldn't encourage them to become political in CA again, but this is a little unbelievable. Do they make this stuff up as they go along? Obviously they don't open any books before writing their position statements where ferrets are concerned. Even looking at pictures would have told them the difference. Is it worth contacting them about this, most politely, or should one let sleeping ignoramuses lie? All the best to _everyone_, Regina Cully the bean counter Amelia, who knows "none" and "more" [Posted in FML issue 1991]