vaccum adventures: Madeline and Theo had never seen my new vaccum, and were fascinated when they met it last night. I made sure there were no tubes or holes for them to crawl into, and sat down to see what they would do with it. "Monsters are in there," decided Theo, who made some very loud SNIFF noises as he completed his initial assesment. He circled, prowled, poked, prodded, scratched, and even dug at the thing, all to no avail. Even after thirty minutes of battle, no monsters came out, and Theo couldn't get in. Not one to give up easily, Theo decided that he would capture The Beast and take it to his hidey hole. So there was little three-pound (if that) Theo, little bum sticking out, dragging the great-big vaccum cleaner around the house. :) Gotta admire that tenacity. ferrets in bed: I know many of you guys sleep with ferrets in your bed, and I have wanted to ask you HOW you get the little squirmers to go to sleep. How? I have ferret-proofed my bedroom so the fuzzits can have free run of that room during the day. At night, I close the bedroom door once they're inside, and let them pick their place. They usually sleep in the bottom drawer until the wee hours, when they wake up, start bashing around, and get put to bed in their house. They would be most welcome to sleep with me, except that they only want to squirm and play in bed, and there is no sleep in them. So the other night I was just about ready to put aside my book and turn out the lights. There I was all snug in my bed, and along came two fuzzits. They squirmed and squirmed and squirmed, tickling me all the while. Finally I caught them both and held them up so we could have a nose-to-nose chat about things. "Listen, guys," I started "I know this is news to you, but beds are for SLEEPING. And at night if you're in the bed at bedtime you are to SLEEP. Lots of ferrets sleep with their people. Tater sleeps in bed with Paw-Paw and Me-Maw. Now it's your turn to cuddle up and nod off. You be like Tater and curl up and go to sleep!" And you know what? They did! Now, I wouldn't be surprised if this is just a one-time thing, so give me some hints on getting fuzzits to sleep when they're in bed at bedtime, ok? cmc -- Christine Code We shall find peace. Vancouver, CANADA We shall hear the angels, [log in to unmask] We shall see the sky http://www2.portal.ca/~cmc Sparkling with diamonds. - Chekhov [Posted in FML issue 1454]