Thank you all for your responses.
 
Carol is going to try and discover the source of the Alloc floor.  I
know the Home Depots here do not carry it.  I have looked and asked for
anything that would look like wood but take the abuse Carol applies to
her Alloc floor while cleaning up after the little ones.  One of us can
post the info if we can get it.
 
My guys would not use the rice box.  And the spot where the rice box used
to fit has been taken up by two more large cages.  So dirt or sand boxes
are not an option.  I now sleep in the living room because I would not let
Mini-Me or Maria die, and the extra room their cages take up just pushed
me right out of my bedroom.
 
My guys go to the woods and park when the weather is amenable, and run,
explore, dig, roll and sniff, chortle, and sigh.  Obviously then, there
are months they can only dig at the papers in their cages or in the
corners, or dig up fresh litter in the boxes, or rip up my carpeting if
they feel the need to dig.
 
I replace the carpeting I have over the floors I have recently had tiled
every two or three months.  They are shredded in places, and pooped on in
others.  That is at least $360 a year in cost.  But I really don't like
to walk barefoot on cold floors.  And the guys are almost all older now
and need traction.
 
I do put wood pieces home depot cut for me behind the cages.  But I like
the plastic roll idea for all the spots where the litter boxes are
through-out my home.  I have it on my list of things to purchase.
 
It is a beautiful Memorial Day morning.  The sun has just come up.  I kiss
ferret faces, and watch baby ducklings stroll by with Mom and dad as I
write.  The sea gulls appear to be mating in the air, above the glittering
blue wetlands.  The frogs are croaking.  A young hungry opossum with
beautiful eyes has heard of my animal diner, and is just around the corner
softly munching his food.I am alive and free of hunger or thirst.
 
Many men and women died or have been grievously injured, to allow me a
life of freedom and love for ferrets.  I am not beaten for being odd.  I
am not shamed for being single.
 
I will not be forcefully taken in the middle of the night and tortured
and dumped into a mass grave for disagreeing with the President on
environmental issues.  I fight the local government to save trees during
construction.  I can openly cry over the E.P.A., and lack of laws for
them to do their job.  And still I live to tell of it in this imperfect,
Big Business run country, because of the sacrifices of health and life
and limb of many.
 
God Bless America and the good men and women of the USA
Thank you for the freedoms you have suffered and died for.
 
Lisette
[Posted in FML issue 3795]