Well, after reading the FML for a LONG time, I've finally decided to
throw my two "scents" in (eeyow!)....well, one scent, anyway...
 
   This is partially in response to the recliner issue.
 
   My wife and I live with an almost-two-year-old spayed female, Wuzzy (as
 in Fuzzy Wuzzy, of course).  Shortly after acquiring her (from a pet store
 through special order -- not recommended by us in the future, and we had
 to "order" her sight-unseen!), a sympathetic neighbor gave us a Barcalounger
 (i.e, recliner w/big name) since we a) had little other furniture at the
 time and b) since it already had an enormous doggy-bite out of the left
 front arm rest, with attempted duct-tape repair.  After telling my wife
 about the horrors of recliners & fuzzies, we decided to just let it sit
 and not be an "active" piece of furniture.  Fortunately for all of us,
 it looks unsightly enough that few guests would ever risk actually sitting
 down in it....
   Wuzzy immediately fell in love with it.  She found that she could go up
 into the interior and excavate the foam (rip, rip rip) and push it out thru
 a space in the back where the leather was not sewn shut.  For many months,
 she would hide all of her goodies (and our goodies) up in the chair...what-
 ever we were missing, we could always find up in the chair.  This ranged
 from zip-loc baggies with anything in them to all objects that were made
 out of rubber.  Squeaky mice, balls with bells in them, hairbrushes with
 rubber handles, and baggies, baggies, baggies.
   Every so often, we would decide to clean up under and around the "chair".
 Wuzzy would be frantic as we vacuumed up the shredded foam and ferret food
 and picked up all of our missing stuff, including the usual pile of socks.
   On the other hand, we always knew where she was sleeping....in the back
 of the chair, against the leather, with her body showing a round bulge in
 the back.
   Most of you will be glad to hear that after we moved the chair upstairs
 (going upscale w/our interior decorating), Wuzzy chose more comfortable
 sleeping quarters in the bureau drawers amongst underwear, socks, silk
 nightgowns (especially those) and other soft drawer-sleeping things.
 Always charming to hear her going up and down to and from the top drawer,
 climbing up the backs of the other drawers...
   Wuzzy lives the life of Riley w/an indoor cage connected out through
 the back window to an outdoor cage by 50 feet of 1x2 welded wire tunnel,
 with the outdoor cage (in a secure back yard) having about a foot of
 dirt, grass in places, and a 2-story wooden house with a basement (and
 yes, the outdoor cage has a wire bottom below the dirt, thank you very
 much...).  All of this is available when she is not running about the
 house, pushing videotapes off of the shelves, and looking in at the
 guinea pig...
   Thanks for indulging me, as I am running on about our little girl.  It's
 certainly easy to do.
 
                                Stu Hancock
 
[Posted in FML issue 0762]