Historically, ferrets have been used at various times to run cables. They also were used (with dusters attached to harnesses) to clean tubes used (BEFORE they were used FOR anything) in atomic and nuclear research. (The weird things one picks up being married with a guy whose doctorate is in high energy physics and who has worked for a phone company for over 15 years...) OH, this actually WAS mentioned to the governor of CA by a researcher (not Steve -- we aren't in that state) specializing in human-computer interactions during a meeting on the Internet and schools. [Posted in FML issue 2083]