Bruce- Ferrets as fire dragons? They remind me of fire dragons also. They are about the right size, and courageous enough to take on falling "thread" (or my 50 lb dog). She has also written a story about another world--not Pern. In that world there are things called kitty snakes. They are long critters, shaped like snakes (or legless weasels), and covered with fur. These critters are very tameable, and like to be held by humans and stroked. In this story, the settlers are about to be invaded by aliens, and they are trying to think of ways to discourage them. The main character thinks that maybe if they told the invaders that the wildlife was vicious, they would go away. The response was (while petting a kittysnake) "What should we tell them? That we have killer ferrets?" LOL! Melodyt and the slinky six [Posted in FML issue 2655]