First, I would like to stress that accidents can happen to anyone--even
if you`re careful.

Here`s what happened to me. I`m nearly always home. My first priority
is the ferrets.

I used to tether the ferrets` sleepy sacks to the cages. Most of the
sacks came with loops.

One day I returned to the ferret room after taking a bath, to discover
a ferret thrashing wildly around in a sleepy sack. His nails weren`t
long, but he had managed to hook one into the fleece lining of the
sack. He was trapped! He could not escape. He could not reach the food
or water dishes. He could not even get downstairs to his litterpan. If
I hadn`t hooked the sleepy sack to the cage, he could have dragged it
with him to the food & water dishes--or even downstairs to the
litterpan. Instead, he was trapped!!!

The thoughts that haunted me the most were what if I worked away from
home? How many hours would he have struggled? Would he have ripped his
nail clear out, in sheer frustration? Might he have had a heart attack?

I cut the loops off of every sleepy sack we owned, & we now order them
with no loops.

We use 4" double-ended dog latches to hang our hammies. They`re
expensive, but last virtually forever---and we don`t have to listen to
"CLATTER D CLATTER D CLATTER in the washer & dryer. They`re removed for
laundering. They`re easy (and quick!) to operate. If your hands are a
bit arthritic, it is SO much easier to strip & dress the cages, using
the double-ended snaps. They work well with loops or gromets. There`s
NO WAY a tiny ferret head could get stuck in one of these things.

I`m enjoying reading the "What I have learned" posts. If they can help
us to provide comfort, safety, or relief to even one fuzzy, it is worth
taking precious time to share.

We hope to see some of you at our gathering on Sunday.

Love,
Zoo

[Posted in FML 6102]