Recently Bill was playing with our two ferrets in our supposedly ferret-
proofed room.  I was in another room on the other side of the house.  I
started to hear scratching noises coming from underneath the floor!  I
looked down at the floor register and saw a little face peering up at me.
The view through the grate wasn't too clear, and I thought a rat had
managed to get into the house.  I called to Bill, and while he was on the
way I got a closer look at the creature under the grate.  This time the
little face looked familiar:  it was our ferret, Jerry.  When Bill arrived
and I told him that Jerry was in the heating duct, he was totally bewildered,
since he was sure that the ferrets were in the other room.  He went back and
found that the metal cover had been removed from the duct opening.  Meanwhile,
I ran downstairs and got a box of raisins to coax Jerry out of the duct.  She
came out almost immediately when she heard the sound of a raisin box being
shaken.  She was dusty but unharmed.  We think that the dog must have knocked
the register cover off when he was romping with the ferrets.  The next day
Jerry seemed to remember that she had found a tunnel underneath.  We may have
to bolt the cover to the floor.  Bill says that if something like this ever
happens again, he would immediately turn off the circuit breaker to disconnect
the heater.  We're glad this story has a happy ending.  We also hope that this
story will alert other ferret parents to a potential danger.
 
Clare Sebok
 
[Posted in FML issue 0378]