I'll keep it short. Norman was the best ferret in the whole world!!! Sweet but crazy. He was our first. (We didn't know they were so crazy so we named him Norman-- as in Norman Bates.) Norman was left with a VERY competent sitter while we were on vacation. The sitter could not find him one day. (He was in one of those new sleeping spots. ) We told the sitter he would be OK we would be back the next day and the house was "proofed" . When we got home--no Norman. We looked and he got out through the dryer vent which means he got in a closet ( that we thought he could not get into) and he dug his way through the dryer tube, ripped it off of the hole and escaped through the hole. He got out into the yard, and being afraid of nothing, went over to play with the neighbors dogs like he played with ours. To make a long story short, our neighbors dogs don't play and they killed him. We now have Annie and Pippin and the only time we left without putting them in a cage was a disaster also!! (we left them out by mistake). We came home and the back door was open ( the dogs wanted to come inside REAL bad). Annie greeted us at the door (with a where the *@#$ have you been look) and Pippin was gone. Lucky for us Pippin is a chicken and was under the porch and came right out (also with a where the *@#$ have you been look). The moral of the story is--even though your house is "proofed" *@#$ happens -PLEASE BE CAREFUL. I have never missed a pet as much as I still miss Norman! (and that's a bunch of pets) ***************** Ed & Tracy Bonza [log in to unmask] [Posted in FML issue 1599]