Risa, if you are going to allow someone else in your home while you are gone, confine the ferrets to a cage. There are too many horror stories of ferrets that were accidentally let out and never returned. I know people who lost ferrets this way because they escaped outside. My near miss occurred in NC following Hurricane Floyd in 1999. I was working with the Red Cross and our neighborhood had intermittent power. I came home to my rented condo late one night, had no power, took off my shoes inside the front door and started up the stairs. Halfway up I put my foot down on something soft. One of the ferrets was sleeping on the stairs. I carried him up to the ferret room and found the door open. My landlord had come by to "check" on things and had failed to close the door properly. In the dark I am trying to find all my ferrets in a two story condo with some unferret-proofed areas. AND, wondering if anyone escaped unnoticed when I came in the front door. Luckily, no. If the room to which they will be confined has a plexiglass barrier so that nobody has to open a door or go in, that is one thing. But, I lock mine in a cage if anone will be there and I am not home. -- renee :) It's amazing how much can be accomplished if nobody cares who gets the credit! Ferret Emergency Response, Rescue & Evacuation Team (F.E.R.R.E.T.) http://www.ferretemergency.org [log in to unmask] International Ferret Congress http://www.ferretcongress.org American Red Cross http://www.redcross.org [Posted in FML 5542]