Oh, there are plenty of downfalls to owning ferrets... Down falls the potted plant Down falls the treat container Down falls the bag of food and spills everywhere Down falls the full pop can, the drinking glass, all the books off the bookshelf, the computer mouse, the remote control, and last, but most important... Down falls the wardancing ferret as she bounces blindly off the edge of the bed, the couch, the chair... But seriously, those really ARE downfalls to owning a ferret. Everything has to be either nailed down or floating in midair out of their reach. Its very time consuming to constantly ferret-proof a room. Plug or cover any escape routes, remove anything the ferrets could reach which might hurt them, or the thing, etc. Other downfalls include: Basically giving up on ever having clean carpet in the room with ferrets, to the point where I'm actually considering having a linolium-floored bedroom. Between missing the litter box, (Or just pretending they don't exist,) to knocking any number of various things over, to just rolling about in a ferret like way, carpet is downright unrealistic. Vacation? What vacation? No one I know besides myself has ferrets, and no one really knows how to take care of them. Best I can do for vacation is put a bag of food in various dishes, etc., and a gallon of water in various bowls or bottles, and make sure the litter and newspaper are fresh when I leave, then ask someone to go take a head count once every day or two, and just double-check that they have food and water. Dooking, chasing, running, water-bottle licking, food crunching, skittering, rustling, being crawled on, being bounced on, being licked, bit, dug, having whiskers in your ear, snuffling, hissing, and phantom toe-nibbling, all at 2:00am. Its the Ferret Shuffle. Those of us who still live with ferrets despite are just crazy enough to find all these things endearing, but they are not for the weak-hearted, or for the weak-scheduled. As long as you don't mind giving constant attention, spending hours cleaning, organizing and ferret-proofing, and all on poor if not very little rest, due to ferrety interruptions, then ferrets are just the pet for you! Melissa Barnes Mira, Tasha, Robin, Nietzsche, Samurai and O'Dell Missing Cael and Booboo always [Posted in FML issue 3700]