Bob C: you forgot to include *why* ferrets are poorer predators than others. I respectfully submit that it's because whenever they see prey and get ready to pounce, their tails do that wagging thing - resulting in a resulting machine-gun b-dop-b-dop-b-dop sound. Of course, the prey hears this and runs away. Merely conjecture, of course. :) Fitch: The store 'Abercrombie and Fitch' always annoyed me a little, simply because I know what 'Fitch' means. I'm sure there's a different story behind the store's name, anyhow. When I was in an antique store a few weeks ago I was puttering around the hats, and came across two fitch pelt. While I'm sure most of you would've been properly horrified, I was fascinated and spent quite a while examining them. I came to the eventual conclusion that fur fitch have *very* nice coats. The pelts were the 'entire' fitch - from nose leather to big, bushy tail. They were quite obviously either sable ferrets or Euro. polecats, and I assumed fur ferret. John briefly joked about buying them for our ferrets, which I thought was mildly macabre but might've done if I didn't realize that my ferrets either would've been terrified of it or tried to eat it and gotten sick. Besides, what do they need with a dead furry pelt when they've got their own? Speaking of which, Noodle's fur has gotten the strangest feel to it - running your hands over it, it feels like a piece of chamois (the ultra-soft suede used to polish stuff). No kidding. It's notable simply because his fur has always been very mink-like, even to the point of the vets he's seen commenting on it. He's also losing his white undercoat and becoming more and more coffee-grounds-colored. Quite pretty! Melissa __ Melissa Litwicki ____ [log in to unmask] __ By the whole newsgroup devoted tennis showing it after scarfing fork and laughters [Posted in FML issue 2089]