I'd like to put in my $.02 about cages: The cat playpen (made by Midwest, i think) has so far proven to be inescapable, even with 6 very clever ferrets in it who want out. The door design might be useful to those of you who make or resign cages, so I'll describe it (it's very simple). The door is a rectangle with a bottom hinge, so when it's unlatched it swings down and forms a shallow ramp up into the cage. When the door swings up to meet the cage, its top overlaps the cage bars by about 1/3 of its height. Attached to those cage bars is a loose bar, hooked to vertical wires on the cage frame at either end, that slides up and then can be slid down over the outside of the cage door, securing it. This makes secure points on the door (which is very stiff wire as it is) at the bottom and then almost in the middle, guaranteeing 1) that the ferrets can't push their way out and 2) they dont have the coordination to move both ends of the securing bar up so that the cage door falls free. ._____________. <-- cage door with vertical wires | | | | | | | | .|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|. <-- bar, attached to cage frame at dots, slid | | | | | | | | up, then over the top of the door, then down | | | | | | | | `=`=`=`=`=`=`=' <-- hinged bottom The only possibility for escape would be through the bars, which are set 1" apart, but the door method would work on almost any cage with vertical wiring. Instead of a bar that slides up and down, a bar that is hinged on one end and that swings shut to clamp over a bottom-hinged door would also work very well, i think. Melissa ___ Melissa Litwicki __ [log in to unmask] ___ By the whole newsgroup devoted tennis showing it after scarfing fork and laughters [Posted in FML issue 1832]