Many people have strong opinions on whether to cage their animals, and if so, when, just as they have strong opinions on descenting, what to feed them, treats, and all the other aspects of caring for our fuzzies. The key is to find a happy medium between you and your ferrets. What is uncompromising for some doesn't work for others. Over my now four years of being companions with my wonderful fuzzies, I have, as many new owners do, gone through an evolution. I've gone through caging while I was at work, but letting them run when I'm home, caging at night while I was asleep only, caging both while I was sleeping and while I was at work, but letting them run and play while I could be with them, to finally simply leaving their cage open and letting them choose when they use it. These choices were influenced by where I lived, what I and my ex-husband were doing during the day, and also what I read in various places during my research. Well, I finally decided that they just plain like it better when they aren't caged. They stay in my room with me, it is more their place than mine, and while it is sometimes frustrating when Tasha or Robin decides it is time for me to wake up, I can tell you I sleep much better on average than when Mira is throwing a tantrum from being caged. Bottom line, though, is that the safety matters which might cause others to cage at certain times do not apply. In the room they have, which is large and includes my walk in closet, I can still find all six of my fuzzies in a matter of less than three minutes. (I actually do time trials in case of emergency.) There are plenty of snuggly spots and hiding places, but none that are inaccessible to me. And when I'm gone, my downstairs neighbor knows it. If anything were to happen, she knows where my ferrets live, how many there are, their names, where I keep their treats and the squeeky toy they come to, and how to close my cage if she needs to remove them in a hurry. I have also found that my kids help me sleep when they are out. (Aside from the 2am toe nibbling, and lick lick chomps from Robin as soon as the alarm goes off.) I drift off every night to dooking, the sound of their feet as they run across my hardwood floor, licking at the water bottle and food crunching, snuffling noises in my ear, and other fuzzy sounds. These days, I actualy have trouble sleeping if those noises aren't present. Last summer, my boyfriend's sister stayed with us after a surgery on her knee. So she wouldn't have to climb another set of stairs every day, (besides the one at the entrance,) we used the extra bedroom in the attic, and she slept in my room with the ferrets. SHE loved it, and I couldn't sleep. Too darn quiet it was. Well, I guess I'm crazy ferret lady, now. Can't sleep when the ferrets aren't around. Oh well. I guess what I'm saying is this: With all of the strong opinions here on the FML, and strong recommendations in other places, it is often difficult to determine exactly what is the right thing to do. Of course we must all be safety-minded, and take into consideratino all advice we receive, but in the end, you just have to do what is right for you and your fuzzies. No matter how much someone says that this is the one and only right way, that won't make it work better for you. Melissa Barnes [Posted in FML issue 3604]