Melissa - Last year I tried the same thing - putting my ferrets in my very cool basement - however, it's not a finished basement, and after a couple of days, my ferrets started to 'smell' My basement is not ferret-proofed either, so I will still bring them up stairs to play, but then they seemed to have a worse time with the heat and wouldn't play anyway. SO, I brought them back upstairs, put 3 fans on them, closed the shades in the dining room, and now they do fine. I got an old litter pan, cleaned it up and filled it with water in the center of the kitchen floor - now they use it for a swimming pool and are keeping cool that way. Spritzing them with a water bottle will help keep them cool also. This is a good time to give baths - they dry to fast and love the cooldown anyway. Debbie Riccio WNYFLFA Rochester, NY [Posted in FML issue 1232]