With all the talk about the problems with Christmas Trees and ferrets you could be describing what we went through with my son during his early years. We put the Christmas Tree in the closet in the family room one year and blocked the open door off with a baby gate. When we were out of the room, the tree was disconnected (not just turned off) and the closet door was shut. Living in Alaska at the time, we anchored it to the ceiling regardless of it being in the closet. This was also a large walk-in closet we used not one of those tiny clothes closets. Another year we put the tree in the arctic entrance and blocked that off with a baby gate. In our situation today if need be I would do the same but put a split tube on the top of the baby gate to keep the little guys from climbing. Roberta Secretary, http://www.ferretclubofmaine.org [Posted in FML issue 3522]