I've always been grateful to the people who posted to the FML about their mistakes and accidents. I've never been one of the people who believe "it could never happen to me," so I've taken every warning about dishwashers, doors, recliners, dryers, etc., very seriously. That didn't protect Jackson, though, and I lost the most perfect ferret I have every known. I'd been having a terrible time. Two events so distressing and confusing that I could barely begin to process them had happened within 4 days of each other. I was still shaking and exhausted the evening after the second event when I did some laundry. I was in a hurry, and I thought I was being efficient and handling things pretty well, all things considered. Hours later I found Jackson in the dryer. He was truly the perfect ferret, and I told him so every day. I often thanked God for giving me a little guy like him. Much as I have loved every one of my ferrets, Jackson seemed like a reward for all the bites and poop and bickering over the years. (He was perfect in the litter department, too.) He was a silver, with those beautiful triangular-shaped dark eyes. He was my test ferret. When we moved and I was setting up the new ferret room, all I had to do was sit for 10 minutes and watch Jackson to see where the weak spots in my ferret proofing were. He was so smart. He loved to cuddle as much as he loved to play, and everyone who visited fell in love with him. When Martin was dying recently of cardiomyopathy, Jackson would wrap himself around him for 5 or 10 minutes to comfort him when he was making his rounds. He always joined me this way when I was giving Reiki to Martin. Jackson came from the SPCA, where the employees loved to carry him around because he was such a dear. They sent him home with a little teddy bear he had become attached to, and he always took the best care of it. It lived in one particular hammock, and Jackson checked up on Teddy whenever he had been sleeping for a long time. On rare occasions (because I didn't want to upset him) I would put Jackson's Teddy on the floor just to enjoy how adorable his response was. He would sniff Teddy, run to the hammock to confirm his worst suspicions, run back to Teddy, and carry him arduously through the three connected cages to his hammock. Then he would sling Teddy up on the hammock. What happened next was the part that grabbed my heart. He put his front paws on the hammock, slid his head under Teddy, and gave a deep sigh as he absorbed the Teddy Love through the top of his head. He was just a sweet guy in every way. When my daughter had to give me her two ferrets, and Francis was making them miserably unwelcome, Jackson just took them in as if they were old friends. Trying to comfort me, my husband said that I was the last person he would think such an accidental death could happen to. I checked and double checked everything. I changed floor cleaners. I nagged him about opening doors, wearing shoes around the ferrets, etc., etc. I was so very, very careful. I'm not saying this as an excuse, because I am still too far from forgiving myself. I'm saying this as another warning in addition to Check Your Dryer. I'm saying that we should be doubly careful and not trust ourselves to think normally when we are stressed and exhausted. Just like we know when we have to be especially attentive while we drive, we need to be especially conscious and careful with our ferrets when life seems out of control. This was the hardest lesson I have ever learned with an animal. I can only hope that my confessing it to all of you may save a ferret life someday. [Posted in FML issue 4560]