I'm seeing all these posts about the dangers of sleeper sofas but no
one is mentioning the fact that REGULAR sofas can be VERY dangerous for
ferrets as well. And when I hear a lot of you saying that your solution
was to STAPLE fabric on the bottom - I shudder - and this is why.

Seven years ago when I was still pretty new to ferret ownership I had
a sofa and loveseat. My ferrets tore a hole under the cushions so they
could sleep inside the sofa. One day one of my ferrets, Eddy, came out
from the sofa with his eye bleeding and bulging. I rushed him to the
vet. He had lacerated his eye - most likely on a furniture staple -
and had to go into emergency surgery to have the eye removed. This is
what he looked like after the surgery -
http://www.ferretocious.com/eddy5.jpg
As soon as I got home from the vets I dragged both the sofa and
loveseat to the curb. And ever since then I have ONLY had futons.

If you have furniture your ferrets can get inside - sofas, chairs,
loveseats - please don't think it's OK and something like this won't
happen to them. If not catching an eye on a staple - from the furniture
or that YOU put there - they could be crushed when someone sits on the
furniture not knowing they're there. IKEA has some great futons - and
hey, sofas are so passE anyway!

So be safe - please don't let one of your fuzzies end up losing an eye
like poor Eddy did!

Laura

[Posted in FML 5867]