One of our ferrets, Coffee, turned up missing last night at bedtime. She hasn't turned up yet. While my sister and her 17-month-old son were visiting, no only did she repeatedly ignore warnings on how to deal with our ferrets safety (leaving diapers and bottles laying around where the ferrets could chew on them), her son also beat the crap out of our screen door, knocking it off it's track several times. We had a screen patch over a portion of the screening, because there was a hole in it, but the patch was pretty secure and we had had the glass door open before with no problems. Apparently while destroying our door, he ripped the patch open and we didn't notice it. Since Andrea has gone to Cheyenne, WY a couyple days to visit other friends, the ferrets finally got the run of the hosue for a little while (Coffee had bit teh baby a few times, so they were all confined to the bedroom and hating it). When we were getting ready for bed and looking in all the usual ferret sleepy places, no Coffee, and then we discovered the hole. We searched for her until 2 in the morning, and Kirk got up at five to start searching again. We haven't seen any sign of her, although we did leave food out and I'm taking the day off work (unthrilled boss) to continue doing sweeps for her. We've also got Ferrets, Etc (thanks loads Stephanie and Christy) with their eyes and ears peeled for her, we're finally a lost report with the DEnver Dumb Friends League this afternoon, and I called the other ferret rescue and mentioned it to her, although I don't know how she'll call back since she said goodbye and hung up before taking my number or a real description of Coffee. Kirk and I have been telling everyone we see, and I went the the construction information place down the street to have them keep their eyes open for her. There are generally a lot of kids around, so we'll recruit them, and once it gets more afternoonish so I don't wake anyone up, I'll start banging on doors and asking around more. Unfortuneately, we don't have any squeaky toys (we were worried about the latex and soft rubber) and there are a lot of porches and nooks and crannies in this area (townhouses) so it's not going to be easy to find her. We know she knows home, because she had gotten out once before due to an insecurely fastened windown screen (since taped over) and banged on teh screen at three in the morning for us to let her in. That time we didn't even realize she was missing because they had the run of the house and we didn't think they could get out. We've since become more cautious, although that didn't seem to help. Sorry for the rambling, but as you can see, I'm pretty tired and worried and I suppose a bit hysterical. and BTW, my sister is being excused from my house as soon and she gets back from Cheyenne. Michelle -- Meet my pets. The ferrets (Taz, Coffee, Daphne, and Tia), the gerbils (28 permanent residents and various babies), the zebra mouse (Racer), the rats (five of them), the budgie (Sky), the cockatiel (Summer), and the fish (various). [Posted in FML issue 1234]