Hello all!
 
        Well we had an unfortunate incident this afternoon.  Cleo escaped.
 While cleaning her cage we normally let her run around the yard with the
bunnies.  They don't like each other much but get along okay normally.
Today however Cleo was apparently chasing one of the rabbits who decided
to make a dash for safety.  I wasn't there at the time.  So while Dean,
the other keeper of the pets :), was chasing the rabbit back into the 'free
area' Cleo was making a break on the other side.  He only had his back to
her for a minute and she was gone.  We searched the neighbor hood for a
couple hours. You can imagine me crouched over looking in all the bushes
squeaking her big hedgehog toy.  Anyhow.. eventually it got dark and I was
thinking about then that we would never see her again.  I live close to a
college campus with a high population of people, cars and cats and not
much natural ferret habitat.  Well, a bit later a woman came to the door
with the little lost rug rat.  Apparently Cleo had gone down about three
houses and taken up residence with the cats there.  When the woman came
home Cleo bounded up to her and followed her right into the house.  The
woman who had seen us out in the yard with the animals before just picked
her up and brought her back to us.  So the story had a happy ending after
all... but gave us quite a fright.  We are going to go tomorrow and get
better fencing for the pets area.
        The worst part.. we were very lucky to get her back because I had
taken her collar off earlier this week because it was irritating her.  I
am going to have to find some kind of collar that doesn't do this.
Anyhow, we are glad Cleo has come home safely.. happier even that she is
such a friendly, playful ferret.. otherwise she might not have been found :)
 
-Amy and Cleo
 
[Posted in FML issue 0485]