You may have noticed Chere's notice about the death of two of her ferrets in a terrible accident. I know that Chere is very broken up about this, and she blames herself for what happened, but it was in fact nothing more than a tragic accident that could happen to any one of us. And I think it is an important object lesson for all of us who are owned by ferrets--no matter how long you own them, how much you know about safety and how well you think you may have ferret-proofed your house, ferrets WILL get into trouble and you can't overlook any possibility. What follows is my reconstruction of what happened based on several comments made by Chere and her husband--neither of whom could really talk about what happened, they were so upset. (The accident happened on Sat.-Sun., I saw them Mon.) Basically, several ferrets were out playing on the ferret fun porch on Saturday. Now this porch has been designed with the ferrets in mind--it has reinforced metal screen over the bottom portion to prevent digging at the screen and escaping. When Chere went out to gather up the forces, she noticed several ferrets were missing. After searching a while, she found a small hole in the screen and assumed that the fuzzies had gotten out. Mind you, Chere runs a disaster response center, and she knows what to do when a ferret goes missing. Not only did she manage to round up several dozen of her neighbors to help look for them, she also had flyers printed and put up almost immediately--all the things you are supposed to do. They searched well into the night, with no luck. Chere made the only logical conclusion: missing ferrets + hole in screen = ferrets escaped to the outside. Unfortunately, the ferrets had never left the house. They were trapped in a large ferret fun ball, which had rolled under a chair and gotten stuck with the opening downward so they couldn't get out. Two ferrets died, and at least one more was injured by the time she found them less than a day later, on Sunday. All in all, it was a really dreadful thing to have happen to one of the most safety conscious people I have ever met. The only reason I post this private grief on this public forum is to give us all something to think about: Are our ferret toys REALLY safe for them? Even the toys manufactured for ferrets can have hidden dangers. What happens if the ferrets get caught in something while we're at work, or asleep? (Think about this even if you keep your ferrets in a cage when you're not there--is your cage really safe, no sharp edges, no possible escape holes?) I think we should all take time to think about what could possibly go wrong with each of the toys our ferrets play with. We talk alot about the dangers of chewing off small bits and getting blockages, and about the importance of ferretproofing our houses, but what about other toys, other dangers? Please, take this time to inspect all your toys and throw out any that are worn or damaged. And hug your ferrets extra tight when you say goodnight tonight. Jen [Posted in FML issue 1585]