Just when you think your house is finally ferret-proof.... We visited relatives last week in Washington D.C., leaving our menagerie in the care of a vet tech friend. As I was putting away ferret treasures hidden in the couch before we left, I saw that 'Possum's face was really puffy. The poor guy looked like he had a terrible toothache--he was drooling and tearing and he winced whenever I touched the left side of his face. On further investigation, we found that his gum was bloody, but we couldn't find out any more because he *hates* to have his mouth messed with. So we took him to Dr. Wickizer, who thought he had an abcessed tooth (he's the one with the clipped off canines) and left him for the week =( =(. It turns out that he actually had an infected puncture wound in his gum, but now he has nice clean teeth anyway for good measure. I hate to think what would have happened if he hadn't been treated for another week--he couldn't eat anything like that. He's still sleeping all day, but he did get up for a couple of minutes yesterday to roughhouse with Bandit =). The great part is that the whole treatment (5 nights boarding, tooth cleaning, treating the gum, antibiotics, exam, etc) only cost us $90! Then last night we had another scare. I was cooking babecued ribs and the room was getting kinda smokey, so I opened our sliding glass door to the balcony (the screen door was locked). Later, when I went to put up Bandit and Felix, I couldn't find them anywhere! I checked the couch, the trash, the laundry bag, even the toilet, but couldn't locate them. Finally I had a terrible thought and opened the sliding door again--there they were, cavorting away on the third story balcony! I'm *so* glad that they didn't jump off the edge!! So, the upshot is that we're getting a new used couch with wood legs and no springs, so 'Possum can't hurt himself, and we're going to bribe the maintenance man who knows about the animals to fix the screen door. I know this is getting long, but I want to give our rationale for keeping ferrets in an FFZ. We moved to Columbus with 5 carpet sharks, and we made finding an apartment that allowed them our absolute first priority. They are members of our family, and we would have transferred to a different city if we couldn't have kept them in Columbus. Fortunately, our manager didn't care. We have since then picked up two more guys [and lost two =(] from people who didn't want them anymore. The mink, another illegal immigrant, we got as an orphan, but we would never give her up either. I don't really worry about the sharks being confiscated (note the lack of anon status), but we do have to drive 90 mins. to get to a vet who knows ferrets. Good luck to everyone and your weasels--check that ferret-proofing one more time for me! Laura McDonald and the Sneaky Six (Bandit and Possum say hi to all the other Bandits and Possums out there!) [Posted in FML issue 0773]