One of our ferrets, Coffee, turned up missing last night at bedtime.  She
hasn't turned up yet.  While my sister and her 17-month-old son were
visiting, no only did she repeatedly ignore warnings on how to deal with
our ferrets safety (leaving diapers and bottles laying around where the
ferrets could chew on them), her son also beat the crap out of our screen
door, knocking it off it's track several times.  We had a screen patch
over a portion of the screening, because there was a hole in it, but the
patch was pretty secure and we had had the glass door open before with no
problems.  Apparently while destroying our door, he ripped the patch open
and we didn't notice it.  Since Andrea has gone to Cheyenne, WY a couyple
days to visit other friends, the ferrets finally got the run of the hosue
for a little while (Coffee had bit teh baby a few times, so they were all
confined to the bedroom and hating it).  When we were getting ready for
bed and looking in all the usual ferret sleepy places, no Coffee, and then
we discovered the hole.  We searched for her until 2 in the morning, and
Kirk got up at five to start searching again.  We haven't seen any sign of
her, although we did leave food out and I'm taking the day off work
(unthrilled boss) to continue doing sweeps for her.
 
We've also got Ferrets, Etc (thanks loads Stephanie and Christy) with
their eyes and ears peeled for her, we're finally a lost report with the
DEnver Dumb Friends League this afternoon, and I called the other ferret
rescue and mentioned it to her, although I don't know how she'll call back
since she said goodbye and hung up before taking my number or a real
description of Coffee.
 
Kirk and I have been telling everyone we see, and I went the the
construction information place down the street to have them keep their
eyes open for her.  There are generally a lot of kids around, so we'll
recruit them, and once it gets more afternoonish so I don't wake anyone
up, I'll start banging on doors and asking around more.
 
Unfortuneately, we don't have any squeaky toys (we were worried about the
latex and soft rubber) and there are a lot of porches and nooks and
crannies in this area (townhouses) so it's not going to be easy to find
her.  We know she knows home, because she had gotten out once before due
to an insecurely fastened windown screen (since taped over) and banged on
teh screen at three in the morning for us to let her in.  That time we
didn't even realize she was missing because they had the run of the house
and we didn't think they could get out.  We've since become more cautious,
although that didn't seem to help.
 
Sorry for the rambling, but as you can see, I'm pretty tired and worried
and I suppose a bit hysterical.
 
and BTW, my sister is being excused from my house as soon and she gets
back from Cheyenne.
 
Michelle
 
--
Meet my pets.  The ferrets (Taz, Coffee, Daphne, and Tia), the gerbils (28
permanent residents and various babies), the zebra mouse (Racer), the rats
(five of them), the budgie (Sky), the cockatiel (Summer), and the fish
(various).
[Posted in FML issue 1234]