Dooks to all and hugs to those who've lost their beloved furrkins. In response to Vickie's 'house leech', I think I would have been tempted to have gotten some sort of cleaner, walked into the room, and poured it over his head. If he'd said anything about it, just tell if he thinks it won't hurt a ferret, it certainly won't hurt him! I'd probably hand him a bill for rent, and show him the door at the same time. Sounds like you also need to jump start your SO on a few things, too. I've gone to our Paas Pets here in town several times, as they always have newbies in. I think I've managed to stop an impulse buy from two young boys. They were observing the older babies and one was telling about how he wanted a ferret. Somehow I knew they were the type to keep one for a while then who would know what might happen. I proceeded to ask if they knew anything about ferrets, the one looked at me and said not really. I then told him we had six, and explained a few things. When I talked about how thin their bones were, some perhaps no bigger than a toothpick, the "smart" (and I use this term extremely loosely) popped off, "Well, will it bend like one". I must have given what my family calls 'the look' and quietly said I wouldn't try it if I were you. They moved on rather quickly. My daughter kept telling me, "temper, mom, temper." On a lighter note---my Christmas babies, Suzy Derkins and Calvin are doing wonderful. Kit tries to mother them, and sometimes Kit and Scully both have to pin Calvin, he gets so carried away. Suzy loves to climb my legs, and has discovered "The bathtub". I put warm water in it last night and had to get Genie out because she kept trying to pull the plug. I had about an inch or so nice warm water in it and put Suzy in. I laughed my head off at her wading through the water. Then Kit got in and they both had a blast till Kit grabbed the plug and tried to run with it. Suzy, in the meantime, watched the water go down the hole and tried to follow. Drying her and Kit off got to be hysterical too. The other night I stepped back, thought I'd looked, but Genie, the 'Flying Wombat', had come up behind me and I didn't know it. I accidentally stepped on her and she shrieked, which caused my heart to stop. I scooped her up, started cradling her and cooing, the the little bugger reached out and bit my cheek, as if to say, 'hurt me, I hurt you!' Then right after that she started kissing me. And people say they don't think! ======================= Rebecca McFarlane Secretary Basic Medical Sciences School Veterinary Medicine Purdue University West Lafayette, IN 47907-1246 Phone: 765-494-8632 Fax: 765-494-0781 "Do not meddle in the affairs of dragons, for thou art crunchy and taste good with ketchup" [Posted in FML issue 2562]