Ethan asked about ferrets and books: In my experience, ferrets just _love_ books. Or maybe they hate them; it can be hard to tell. At any rate, a single ferret can have all bookshelves within reach emptied before you can count from one to ten. It doesn't matter how many bookshelves there are. They can do it, trust me. Mine don't hurt the books on purpose, but they do like to move them around pretty regularly. I avoid putting heavy books within ferret reach, so that one ferret can't drop a heavy tome on another (Amelia: "whoops, was that Cully's head? oh dear me. what's behind this next book?"), and I avoid putting any highly valued books within reach. If neither of these sound like an option for you, maybe just putting cinder blocks or other heavy items instead of books on the low shelves would be a good solution. One other thing to watch out for with bookshelves is that they may provide handy climbing access to places you don't want a ferret to be (which, generally speaking, is the place a ferret most wants to be). And yes, this former anthropologist can confirm your memory about the domestication of guinea pigs-- meat, not pets. Nice for guinea pigs that this isn't the case anymore, at least not widely beyond the Andes! Regina [Moderator's note: A Peruvian restaurant very near my home has them on the menu. Across the street from this restaurant is a pet store. I've often wondered (more or less jokingly) if there was any connection. Yuck. BIG] [Posted in FML issue 2434]