The reporter for the Cleveland Plain Dealer who wrote on the possibility of it being rat bites is Karin Scholz. I have spoken with her directly and she seems genuinely interested in this case. We don't KNOW if the cage was locked. The mother said she checked the ferret and found him in his cage in the morning. AFTER they were arrested, the father said the ferret had escaped from his cage before because it was broken. We don't KNOW if it was really broken. We don't KNOW if escape from means the ferret could also get back in. We don't KNOW if the police have investigated this. We also don't KNOW if the attending physicians at the hospital made any special note of the shape of the wounds, or if they considered what type of animal may have caused them. Have you ever tried to get information from a hospital on a patient not related to you? They couldn't even tell me who to talk to about this issue. But right now we want to keep a low profile on just what happened. Our first concern is to make sure the ferret is turned over to Jean after the quarantine. I would dearly love for it to be shown the ferret was not the attacker and to be able to counter the bad press that has spread around the country. Linda Iroff North Coast Ferret Shelter http://www.oberlin.edu/~liroff/ncfs.html [Posted in FML issue 2229]