Ed You said the parents of this child were aware of the Ohio incident. I hope you informed them that there is currently no information made public that clearly points to the ferret as the attacker, rather than a rodent. Much of the information that HAS been made public (ferret found in cage with no blood on it or around the cage) points AWAY from the ferret. As to the motive of the ferret biting the new mother's ankles, it sounds very like reports on the fml from time to time about how a ferret gets overly excited at the sound of a squeak toy. FMLers speculate that the ferret thinks it is a kit in distress or prey. I tend to think the former, since owners holding other prey (such as raisins) are rarely treated this way. A reminder to all that a picture of a child holding a ferret is no more likely to lead to dangerous situations that a picture of a child with puppy, kitten or bunny. Linda Iroff North Coast Ferret Shelter http://www.oberlin.edu/~liroff/ncfs.html [Posted in FML issue 2234]