On Thursday I got up and went into work early (I left at around 2:15 a.m.).
Three sleepy ferrets looked at me as if I were crazy for being up so early,
and then they went back to sleep. I didn't get home from work till close to
5:00 p.m. that day. The ferrets were home alone in our bedroom all day.
When I came into the bedroom, Susie came out to greet me. I cuddled her.
Hobbes woke up and looked at me. I cuddled him. Calvin looked at me, then
just stayed curled in a ball in their most recent bed of choice. I went
over and picked him up, and he was acting kind of weird. I looked at him
and realized that one of his back foot toenails was stuck fast in one of the
little slots on his collar bell. Of course, *I* instantly freaked out as I
tried to get his collar off his neck as quick as possible so I could work on
the toenail a little easier. Fortunately he was still a little sleepy, so
he wasn't fighting too much. I got the collar off, then I had to pry the
little slots open to get out his toenail.
Calvin seems fine, he wasn't limping when I set him down, so I don't believe
there was any damage. But the implications of this incident are enormous to
me. I have no idea if he got stuck at 3:00 a.m. and was stuck like that
all day, or if it happened in his sleep just moments before I got home. (I
imagine it happened shortly before I got home. I assume he would have
pulled out the nail when he tried to walk) Can you imagine if I had been
gone longer? What if I had gone out for dinner, or even stayed overnight
somewhere else!?! We have left the kids home alone overnight before, and we
have plans to keep doing it, but this has really kind of freaked me out.
(BTW, the same thing could have happened if they were caged. Sorry, I
couldn't help adding to the discussion). We don't plan to make them stop
wearing collars, but I guess one lesson we could learn is to take the
collars off if we plan to be away for a long time.
Just thought I would share this story with you guys. It is definitely
something to think about. BTW, I widened the slots in all three of my
babies' bells.
Thanks for listening,
Shelly
p.s. Did anyone else NOT get the FML on Thursday (issue #1600)?
[Moderator's note: Yes, your's was returned as geing undeliverable. BIG]
[Posted in FML issue 1602]
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