Reading about vacuum tests for deaf ferrets and various unrelated accidents got me thinking. Do not vacuum around your free-running ferrets! Noting the way my vacuum quickly sucks up the carpet edges I never vacuumed around my ferrets. I started using the vacuum attatchment to clean scattered litter in their cage and figured it was OK to have them out by the vacuum base because the air force was going to the vacuum hose. Well, I put the vacuum base on a stool to reach other areas and when I took it down - the stool vinyl was ripped off in a small section. Confused I, ever so intelligently, put my hand down by the base to test it - ouch!!! I never moved my fingers so quick in my life, that vacuum would have grabbed them in best it could. My fuzzies are fast but their tails and whiskers wouldn't stand a chance against that force! Please never vacuum with them free; even if they are scared of the vacuum, you never know when curiosity will overcome fear or when their escape path and your cleaning route will intersect. Be careful! RIŁ [Posted in FML issue 3149]