In response to Buffys message about her ferret escaping and returning home on its own I want to say, "It's great that Pukie found her way home." I take all three of my ferrets out for long walks frequently. It's difficult to manage all three at one time so I usually take two and the third later. We usually take the same direction so they're all familiar with it. Their favorite place is the playground where they can dig in the sand so we go there almost every time I take them out. On the way back from there one day one of the ferrets spotted a kid on a bike and decided to chase it. He actually pulled the leash right out of my hand. I quickly picked up his brother and ran after him. That was when I learned how fast these little animals can run. It took me three blocks to catch up to him and that was only because the kid on the bike stopped to talk to a friend. I felt lucky that no harm came to Kanki, that's his name. I've tried to keep all of them from going into the street but everyone knows ferrets have a mind of their own. Fortunately they are all scared of cars and especially trucks. Hopefully this will keep them from running into traffic. As time went on I noticed that all three ferrets started to get excited and started pulling their leash as we got about two blocks from our house. One day when I had only Kanki with me I took a chance and dropped the leash when we were only one block from the house. Sure enough to my expectations he ran straight to the door and started scratching it. After that I tried the same thing with Genki, the other male. He responded exactly the same way. When I tried it with Hana-chan, the female, she just stopped, turned and tried to climb up my leg. She seems to like being carried more than she likes long walks. On a short walk she'll just stay close even when I let go of the leash. All three of them have tried to go into other peoples yards and even climbed up to peoples doors but I discourage that with a sharp, "No" and they seem to know exactly what that means. The reason I wrote this is I'm curious about something. Do ferrets have a good sense of direction like many other animals have. Also, I've noticed that they seem to mark their trail as we walk. Of course they want to sniff everything possible each time they go out but does this help them to recognize where they are? I have actually reached the point with them that I am not afraid of letting them run free at the playground and from time to time I'll let one loose when we reach sight of our house. I don't want to loose any of them or see them get hurt in any way so I'd like to know what other people think of this. Since they seem to know where they live I feel reasonably safe letting them have a little supervised freedom once in a while. By the way, the place that I allow them to run loose from to my house is a full block of houses so they can't get out of sight or behind any of them. Also if they seem to turn toward the street I quickly catch up to them. One thing I wouldn't do is to let them run free where they could come into contact with other animals or in a place they are not familiar with. I think that's a bit too risky. Almost all of my neighbors know my ferrets and many own ferrets themselves. Perhaps I'm correct in thinking that ferrets can find their way home just as Buffy's ferret did. And as she stated, most ferrets have a cycle of eating, playing and sleeping. Even when mine are loose in the house, which is most of the time, they stick to their schedule. In fact, I can almost predict just how long they'll play before taking a nap. What do you think? Are there other's out there who let their ferrets have some supervised loose time? Also, has anyone else had a ferret that got loose come home on its own? --Blake _ _____C .._. ____/ \___/ <____/\_---\_\ Best regards from, Genki, Kanki, and Hana-Chan, my cute ferrets. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Blake F. Parker [log in to unmask] www.ultranet.com/~bfp [log in to unmask] --------------------------------------------------------------------------- [Posted in FML issue 1854]