Hi all: Since we are admitting to horrible accidents that have happened (& almost happened) to our fuzzbutts, I've got one. NOTE: it ends happily. I want to share it as a warning to others. One evening I had one of my seven ferrets out for runtime with me in the living room. This ferret, Shadow, has been trained that at bedtime, when I stand up he will follow me down to the ferret room, where he runs into his cage and gets rewarded with 5 raisins. Problem is, Shadow doesn't tell time, so he doesn't know when bedtime is. Result: EVERY time I stand up, he wakes up excitedly and follows me wherever I am going. The only way I've found to avoid this is to *very softly* stand up and walk across the room, in the hope he won't feel my footsteps (he's deaf) and thus won't wake up. So, on this particular evening, I had to run out for a minute to pick my fiance up from work. Shadow was sleeping under the fishtank stand, so I *very softly* stood up, and tiptoed to the door. I turned around, saw him still snoozin', turned, grabbed my coat & keys, opened the door and very quickly dashed out and slammed the door (so he wouldn't feel the cool air and wake up.) This all took about 1.5 seconds. Problem: I slammed the door, but it didn't shut. In that instant, I realized something was stopping the door, and in the next instant I figured out what it was. Shadow's head. Wow, even in re-writing this story I'm starting to shake, I was so scared, so guilty, and so concerned that Shadow was okay. I opened the door, and sure enough, there he was, shaking his head. That darn ferret must have bolted for the door when he saw me open it. I picked him up, and he was still shaking his head, I felt SOOO bad. Then I started to panic. How do you tell if a ferret has a concussion? Brain damage? They already act like they have brain damage!!! I checked for cuts, blood, etc., then put him on the floor to make him walk. I was looking for anything amiss. I know it must have hurt, but the trooper never whined or showed it (other than the head shaking.) I held him up to my face, the darn sweetie gave me kisses as to say, "I know, Mom, you didn't mean it." Crisis over, I put him back on the floor and went to the door again to leave. The second the door opened, Shadow bolted for it again.... Are any of you going to argue that ferrets don't act like they're brain damaged?? They just never learn! Hopefully, though, with stories like these, we ferret keepers WILL learn, and then our fuzzies can be safe despite themselves. Kymberlie Becker Director, Pennsylvania Ferret Rescue Association "Forget Puppy Love...There's nothing Greater than Ferret Love!" TM [Posted in FML issue 1902]