Welcome. We shall learn more of ferret-human tissue rendering, as I have come to learn about it. Just for a moment, however, let me speak of this strange, but perhaps related behavior that ineptide and good fortune delt me. A ferret kit, as I remember, about 4 weeks old, managed to wriggle its way out of secure confinement (I thought it was secure) and fell some 3 feet onto a concrete floor. This happened while I was asleep upstairs and unaware. At morning quarters (old Navy slang for being "present and accounted for") I was shocked to find one kit missing (AWOL) out of the litter and a thorough search of the nesting-birthing box revealed no tell-tale body part residues that would indicate maternal cannabilism. Unexplained disappearance - gone without a trace. Late that afternoon, whilst doing cage cleaning chores at the fartherest point possible from the mother ferret's cage, kit whimpering was heard eminating from the bottom of a high-sided cardboard box. This box was a collector box for dirty ferret nesting rags. Inside the box were two ferrets: the AWOL kit and my biggest, scruffy, intact male ferret. The male ferret lay "C" form with the kit warmly tucked unto GRAUNK-ichi's prodigous belly and apparently not satiated by sucking GRAUNK-ichi's prepuce, or so it appeared. A Lewinsky ferret? This retrieval and attempted nurturing of a strange little creature by a big, burly and scruffy male ferret engendered in me an awsome feeling of respect for the species, because, for some reason, I'd expected the worst: that the adult male would have ignored the helpless, cold kit, or even worse, would have devoured it. Yet, what had happened was that the male mouthed the kit and carried it to a warm, soft place (climbed up, over, and into an 18-inch high-walled cardboard box) and remained with that kit until I found them. One could say, without too much fear of criticism, that this behavior on the part of hob GRAUNK-ichi, was instinctive and protective behavior. Would women anthropomorphize this as proof of ferret "love?" Probably, since that's the way women are, bless 'em. I cite this experience because it is indicative of a facet of ferret behavior perhaps unrealized by most of us, especially me. Could such instinctive (?) behavior be related to ferret bitings? Think about it, because I wish to portray another incident that is suggestive of perhaps explaining ferret-human tissue rendering, not as an act of aggression, but strangely enough, a manifestation of mat-paternal instinct. Mat-paternal = maternal/paternal. Kommst du "Liebschen" mir mitt, weil ich Dir "lieben." [G] Come my "Love" with me, 'cause I "love" you. [Posted in FML issue 2231]