For my ferret gates, I took the regular two-panel sliding wooden-frame
baby gates and stapled heavy duty clear vinyl to the wooden frames.
The heavy duty clear vinyl is available at hardware stores--I think the
stuff I bought was meant for lining basement ceilings to create moisture
barriers.  Using my trusty staple gun, I put the vinyl on with just
enough give to it so that little ferret claws can't use the tension to
rip into it.  These gates have lasted me about 8 years now :-)
 
On a side note about bats, Texas is not New England.  Animals act very
differently in different climates.  In Austin, bats have a lovely large
colony under the bridge to inhabit and thus don't seek out new homes in
houses, attics or inside the eaves or siding.  In New England or other
areas with harsher winters, large colonies are not practical and so bats
do seek out the small cozy spaces provided by human habitat, and can end
up inside houses.  You can find plenty more information on bats in
houses and what to do if you encounter one in your house at
http://www.batcon.org/ (go to the site map, and under Discovery, click on
Excluding Bats).  Bat Conservation International is led by one of the
world's foremost bat experts and is, btw, based in Austin.
 
Regina, card-carrying BCI member :)
 
Regina Harrison  [log in to unmask]
everything moved:
http://users.rcn.com/badriya/
blog: http://badriya-z.blogspot.com/
 
"Is that my business?  Well, what is my business?  Do I know?  Did I ever
know?  Let's not go into that.  You're not human tonight, Marlowe.  Maybe
I never was or ever will be... Maybe we all get like this in the cold
half-lit world where always the wrong thing happens and never the right."
--Raymond Chandler, The Little Sister
[Posted in FML issue 4302]