with these recent posting about the ferret in Cleveland I wanted to share this disconcerting experience I had w/my ferret and some kids. My friend and I were walking Zooey and Linus in a park adjacent to a school. There were about a dozen 6 to 7 year old kids (mostly girls) swinging, etc. The second they saw that we had ferrets (we walked around a corner and there they were, unexpected on our part), they screamed and ran to us, about 6 of them at one time. Putting their fingers in Zooey's face and trying to pet her and asking to hold her and trying to take her out of my arms w/o waiting for my answer. It was very unnerving. My friend and I kept trying to tell them it was too much, you need to back off, one at a time please, but they would not listen. Every where I turned...a child, sticking her fingers in Zooey's face. There was a supervisor there (about 19 years old or so) who just stood there and watched this mauling w/o making any comments. Very strange, that had never happened to me before. Finally most of the kids heard us and backed off, but I don't know...I'd never been mauled like that before by 6 year olds!!! The crowd mentality? Needless to say I was very worried about Zooey biting these flailing fingers. She was remarkably composed, considering the circumstances. Minta [Posted in FML issue 2230]