Dear Ferreters, A few questions ; 1. Is it true that jills can die if they don't mate? 2. When (at what age) do they start menstruating? 3. When does this mating business get urgent? 4. Unrelated and of no immediate consequence, because I don't have a garden at the moment, but how deep do ferrets burrow? In other words, if I got a garden and would want to build a wall around it, how deep would it have to go into the ground to keep my ferret from digging her way under it? 5. When we go on our daily walks in the neighbourhood, Stinky knows the way home perfectly well, as long as we choose the same route back. Otherwise she is too busy checking things out. Places she passed a little earlier she can give a miss. I am not sure if she can only smell her own scent on the track, or whether she actually knows her way around the architecture of the neighbourhood. It is hard to tell, because on walks she is, of course, always on the leash. How big a territory can ferrets memorise? Greeting from Patrick in Amsterdam [Posted in FML issue 2885]