Hello all! (this is long, bear with me) fidget gave me the first real medical scare of his life this past week, nicely timed to coincide with the exact moment I was leaving the house to take my grandfather to the hospital so he could have his knee replaced. He is a cloth eater and he was chewing on his blanky before I caught him (Fidget, not my grandfather). Then he started hacking hard. We called the vet (thankfully he lives above his practice and is available any time) and after much dispensing of petromalt and very close observation, we were rewarded with litter deposits...thankfully my SOs office didn't mind that Fidget had to go to work with him while I was at the hospital. Anway...on my way home from the hospital I stopped at his office to pick Fidget up. I also had to run into the college library to rent a video for class. So I had no option but to put Fidget in my jacket and take him along. Fidget of course had to peep out as I was at the counter. The fellow asks me if Fidget is a ferret, I said yes. He is nicely curious saying he'd only seen them before and heard they bite. By that time I had Fidget pretty much all out of my jacket. Before I can go into my speil about biting...this fellow who looked to be in charge of something in the library walks up and says "yes ferrets do bite." I was quite amazed at myself because I slowly turned, Fidget in hand, looked UP at this guy (I'm really short), raised my eyebrows and said in a very polite manner. "No, you have to teach ferrets, like any other animal, that biting is not allowed." Then the fellow behind the counter asks about Fidget's age, etc and asks if that is as big as he will get (now Fidget is only about 2.5 pounds, since he lost some weight as he began to shed and I'm sure all the petrolmalt didn't help either and the duck soup incident is another story). The know-it-all says, yes that's as big as ferrets get. I hold Fidget up and explain to the guy behind the counter that no, Fidget isn't your high end example and give him the weight range speil. I felt as if I was in a surreal world because usually I get immediately irritated by such sillyness (although i do keep it inside and remain nice) but this time it was like competence and niceness were just oozing out of my pores as I spoke and time stood still... Fidget was of course his congenial self and was quite happy to be allowed out of my coat! cheers chris and Fidget, the "giant weasel" in WV [Posted in FML issue 2250]