Hi fellow ferret-lovers,
 
Here's something that never happened to my fuzzies before: Pepper has made
it his life's work to destroy my couch.  He of course pulled down the bottom
liner.  We duct-taped it back up.  He pulled it down again.  When he gets in
there, he scratches the liner and creates new entry/exit holes for himself.
These new holes aren't neat--they have stringy frayed edges.  This morning,
the small loop that holds Pepper's BELL (onto his collar) got caught on
these strings.  He apparently "backed out" of the collar .  .  .  I didn't
know anything about it until I noticed the collar was gone.  He disappears
into the couch for hours sleeping (yes, we're careful not to sit on it then
because of the "impaled by spring" story related here), so if that collar
hadn't come off, he could have been stuck for a long time before we realized
what happened.
 
Please make sure your ferret's collar is loose enough to "back out of" if it
gets caught on anything.  This is the first time this has ever happened to
our ferrets, and we've always used a leather shoe-lace and bell combination.
This bell *is* different though--it's a cow bell shape with a loop.  Before
I put the collar back on, I'm going to get a "jingle bell" type bell that is
all one piece, w/o the extra loop.  I'm also going to staple an old shower
curtain to the bottom of the couch.
 
--Sherri,
Pepper (Whew, the ringing in my ears is gone!)
Harley-the-dog (Where is that darn weasel?  He's w-a-a-a-y too quiet today .
. . )
[Posted in FML issue 1748]