Dear Ferret Folks-
 
It took her a full five days, but at long last, Switch the Kit finally
vanquished the Giant Fur Mouse.  When I say vanquished, I mean that she
finally managed to stash it so that it STAYED stashed.  There is no
possibility that it just bounced back on the end of its' elastic string
and caught against something.  She STASHED it, all right, it took me a
good five minutes to dig it out.
 
After perhaps 3,876,397 attempts, here is what worked for her...I had to
follow the trail of the elastic cord to find the mouse.  It wrapped around
the edge of the door it is attached to, it was stretched out back behind
the door, and slanted down to the floor of the closet behind that door.
As it slanted down to the floor, it wrapped completely around one of those
summertime box fans that you can put in your window.  It was wrapped not
only around the 'box' frame itself, but the handle as well...one wrap
each.  The cord then zigged between two plastic laundry baskets on the
closet floor, one of those baskets held the fan.  The cord was wrapped
completely around the base of othe other laundry basket, the one without
the fan.  The cord then zagged up and over the lip of the other laundry
basket, and disappeared into the pile of junk inside of it.
 
I started removing the junk piece by piece, all the while fearing that
when I released the mouse, it would snap up and hit me in the face.  (Not
quite, but almost.  Fortunately I was ready for it.) Finally I picked up
a ziplock bag stuffed full of ferret stuff I find on sale, but never use,
like dry powdered ferret bath in a shaker can, and THPLATT!  The mouse
whipped part way around the base of the laundry basket.  I unwrapped it
and ZAM, TOONK!  It snapped against the fan.  I untangled it from the
handle on top of the fan and POW!  It bonked the back of the door (nearly
clipping my right ear in the process), and finally, swung free at the end
of it's cord.
 
I then looked up to see Switch and Sabrina sitting up in their hammock
just looking at me like "We were SLEEPING, thank you, before you made all
that noise playing with the Giant Fur Mouse, oh, bipedal hominid and
pinnacle of mammalian evolution that you are, are you DONE PLAYING WITH
THE CAT TOY NOW, HMMM?"
 
God, it was embarrassing.
Alexandra in Massachusetts
 
Switch the Kit: "It wasn't making any noise the way I had it, thank you
very much."
 
Sabrina: "No, it wasn't. It was JUST FINE the way it was, until SOMEBODY
went and messed with it."
 
Both: ''Hmmph!"
[Posted in FML issue 3755]