I thought I had this search and rescue thing down pat. But evidently I
don't. I learned two things through Pings mishap. One was to leave an
open door to the house so that the little one can find it's way in. All
of my ferrets know our property when we get close to our home, and if
put down, all of them dash to the front door. So it makes sense to do
this in addition to a carrier with food, water, and blankets outside
as well. Another thing I thought of was other ferrets. Bird people
often put their birds favorite buddy and/or the loudest bird in a
cage outside by an open carrier to attract their lost friend. Weather
permitting, I wonder if it would help at all, to put a ferrety friend
outside in its own carrier next to an open one with food and water. I
realize ferrets don't "call" to one another in any sense that we know
of, but possibly they'd sense one there if they haven't wandered too
far off. Anything is worth a try.

Here are some tips to recover a lost one:

Notify everyone in the house immediately, call a quick meeting, take
charge and give them instructions. One cook, one pot.

Shut off every sound making device in the house and tell everyone
"SILENCE ..I kill you".

Work the grid as they say in the FBI. Start out at point A and don't
move on until every stone has been unturned. Close each door as each
room is searched. Don't have a ton of people looking in the house, or
it will make too much noise and you won't be able to hear any trapped
little ones.

Send one person outside while you look inside to calmly start searching
the immediate area.

Have in hand, ferretone, a flashlight, and squeaky toy. They can smell
ferretone from pretty far off, so squeezing the bottle to shoot out
some smelly air can help. It will be vital to have this if someone is
in a hole somewhere.

Call every and any one to help immediately. Dont' wait until you've
searched outside and found nothing. That is valuable time wasted. Knock
on neighbors doors. They don't have to like ferrets or know what one
is. One of mine was found by an ailing elderly man who did not know
what a ferret was exactly. Bless him, he picked her up before she ran
off and saved her.

After searching outside, then it's time to start expanding the search.
Contact little kids in the neighborhood and offer a reward. Kids have
nothing better to do all day than to look for "treasures", and they
are very resourceful.

Put a carrier outside with smelly blankets, toys and water... food.
This is where we might want to consider a carrier next to it with a
"buddy", weather permitting.

Leave a way into the home, as we've learned.

Here is where we get into territory that I am inexperienced with. Donna
Christen and Chris Matlick are the experts on the FML in this area.
They have recovered ferrets in IMPOSSIBLE situations. Eppie and (was
it Fidget, Chris)?, taught us a lot about how and where to look, and
most importantly how to deal with business's, the public, and animal
shelters in trying to find a long lost friend.

Kat Parsons, what is that sight? Neverforeverland? Yup:
http://www.geocities.com/neverforeverland/help.html A wonderful place
with instructions, linkes, lost stories, found stories, and hope
stories. You might want to keep this site bookmarked.

Wolfy

[Posted in FML 5804]