The ferrets' condo is two midwest cages stacked.  Litter downstairs, food &
water & sleeping quarters upstairs.  Five or six ramps is a long haul for a
7wk old, so we started with a cardboard box.  But wee Gary just wouldn't
sleep there.  He didn't cry or whine, he barked [awesome cute!!!].  Quite
insistently.
 
So I thought he could sleep on the bottom floor of the condo.  I put some
food and a spare water bottle and some bedding down there, and he curled up.
My plan was to transfer him back to the box after he was sleeping.
 
Rikki had a similar plan.  When I put Gary into the condo, she came down and
curled up around him.  Once he fell asleep, she picked him up scruff-wise
and carried him all the way up to the main sleeping space.  She put him down
between Beaubeaux and Rizzo, who were sleeping YinYang style.  Then she
climbed back into her hammock and went to sleep.
 
Later, when I checked on them, Pahzuzu had moved from inside the sleep sack
to lay across the top of the down ramp.  I believe she is blocking it so
Gary won't fall or jump.  I believe this because earlier, when Beaubeaux and
Gary were playing, Pahzuzu bounced along like a referree, keeping herself
between Gary and the heat register, Gary and the chair leg, Gary and the
cat, Gary and anything he could bump into or get stuck in.
 
It seems my little darlings make excellent parents in their own right. :^)
 
Cher
[Posted in FML issue 2172]