Just to clarify something: Steve and I DO get our ferrets vaccinated (EXCEPT that we could not vaccinate Meltdown or Ruffle who were very allergic, and we don't vaccinate terminal animals typically to reduce stresses they must undergo). Hey, Canine Distemper is very, very, very easily acquired, in the wild populations locally, and it's horrible -- had it happen it a housemate's just adopted (from a pound) dog years ago and the experience was so upsetting that after 30 years I still don't like to recall it (and you know I'm not a wimp). Rabies vaccines also protect against the ignorant (as well as the disease -- which is in terrestrial animals locally here -- something you can learn about from your state health dept.), and that infestation (the ignorant people one) can often be the worst danger of all. We'd continue to vaccinate even after learning the numbers, still, the numbers would be interesting, I'll admit. (Remember that we are more likley to hear of reactions here because so very, very many ferrets are described on list.) Bill and others who educated us all about Y2K: thanks for the info. Here I will still worry about the water for the specific reason that our water dept. is already overstressed due to much construction so contamination problems already happen during bad rainstorms, combined with the local gov'ts having a "wait-and-see" attitude so that they don't have to spend more before they come up for election. Also, one local power plant announced publically it will shut down for a few days then, but I think locally with conservation if things get bad in that way and power-sharing we'll be okay. Guess it's partly a matter of knowing one's locality. (Hey, does anyone else use ferrets to judge if water is good or bad? Granted, they can't always tell, but our's have a better nose for assessing water quality (like dogs do) than we have. Given the run-off contamination problems and an intermittent problem with a farmer who uses an old firehose in a hydrant and contaminates things locally on and off despite warnings from the water company -- next time they catch him at it he gets charged -- we find the ferrets provide an important health service this way.) [Posted in FML issue 2369]