Good morning all you fellow ferret lovers (ffl)! I'd like to thank those of you computer "genie" for your advise on how to save to disk, including the private emailers. Maybe I CAN do this afterall! A special note to Paul & Melissa, and Barbara Thomas: My heart and thoughts are with you. This was one of the saddest fml's I've read. Paul & Melissa, I'm sure that Nicky really appreciated not having to go through his final hours alone and had his loved ones with him. Just keep thinking of all the good times he gave you and try not to focus on the end. At least you were strong enough to see it though with him to the end. Barbara: Accidents do happen. You can't blame yourself for this unfortunate circumstance. I especially could relate to your posting, as my Cody is the same age as your Espresso was. My thoughts are with you. Now for an update on Cody waking us up at 4:30 in the morning digging in her hammock...talking to her about being inconsiderate of the sleeping family did no good. Forrest Gump's mama may have said "life is like a box of chocolate..." (yummy), but in the case of Cody's inconsideration of our sleep time, I prefer the Golden Rule, with a little bit of a variation..."Do unto your ferret as your ferret does unto you. Yesterday morning I got up about 5:00. Cody was still asleep, looking so peaceful and cute. I thought about how she previously had awaken me out of a sound sleep, so I thought I's give her a taste of her own medicine. I opened her cage and woke HER up. She looked up at me as if to say, "Are you nuts? It's too early to get up. What are you doing up so early anyway? It's my job to wake you up, go back to bed!" To say the least I wasn't about to give in, so we began to play. I left for work by 8:00, putting her back in her cage. When we got home about 5:00 PM, we got her out of her cage, and played all evening (we did let her take an occasional ferret nap). However, as the evening wore on she wasn't "allowed" to nap very long. We insisted she play, chase and even hide & seek before if was time for the family to go to bed. However, she decided during hide & seek she might be able to sneak in a quick nap. Of course every time we would finally find her, instead of letting her continue her nap, we would play some more! Well, it worked! Not a sound came from her cage ALL night! When I got up this morning at 5:00 she was still sound asleep. She did briefly awaken about 6:00, give about two quick hammock digs, and go back to sleep. I'm sure she's greatful that I'm "letting" her sleep in this morning. I'm sure we will have to go through the whole process again real soon, but for now she's letting me think the I WON THE BATTLE! Until next time...see ya! [Posted in FML issue 1718]