My naughty boy, Pepper, has been at it yet again. My daughter and stepson came home from shopping in time to see Pepper jump back INTO the kitchen through the pet door!!! This ferret is going to be the death of me yet. This is something like the 9th time he's gotten out of the house. This time, either someone in the house was braindead that morning and forgot to close the cage door, or someone crawled in through the pet door, opened the cage and left the same way they go in (front door was locked). Kinda unlikely. O_o He was fine, he apparently knows by now where he lives, but it makes my skin crawl thinking of him out there in the cold (well, HOT lately) cruel world. He thinks everyone loves him, all animals are fun to play with and cars are things you jump into to go somewhere fun. *sigh* If there was some way I could make my back yard impervious to ferret escape I'd feel better, but there are so many ways to get out and besides, he'd dig under the fence if he had to. And then, Saturday evening during romp time, Pepper went to new heights to cause havoc. He jumped up on the futon in the library, onto the windowsill, onto the laserjet printer and apparently pulled down a huge plant on the shelf above my computer equipment by trying to use a towel under the plant as a way up. The havoc could have been worse .... had he gotten up there, I'm sure he would have dumped every CD, diskette and speaker from the shelf. I thought it was high enough to put my valuable stuff. *sigh* The plant thankfully missed the laserjet and emptied onto the floor. Never being one to pass up free entertainment, Pepper dug and *flung* soil all over the place, as well as under the futon and made little muddy footprints on the futon cover, stacks of papers and manuals, etc. we have in the library. It took me *forever* to clean that mess up! Of course I took pictures ... my web page will be graced with new disasters as they occur. *sigh* Just the other day I caught my other free roamer, Cal, bounding away with a $200 pentium computer chip (wrapped in pink foam) in his mouth! Good GOD! O_O My husband, twit that he can be at times, thought putting the box of very expensive computer parts and chips on the floor was safe. He tucked it back in a corner. I'm not sure which is more trouble, the ferrets or the husband! :) I still haven't found the package of underwear I bought the other day (you'd think I'd learn not to put plastic wrapped packages on the floor of my bedroom). Someone returned the socks which had been missing for a couple weeks (unopened set of 3). I'm still not sure how they managed to appear in the middle of the diningroom table. I can't quite picture a ferret dragging it up there. Dragging it OFF, yes, but not *up*... Maybe it was the poltergeist. With my luck, my poltergeist is a ferret. --Barb-- You *hate* water when I'm bathing you, WHY must you snorkle in my soda?!?!? -=- -=- -=- -=- -=- -=- -=- -=- -=- -=- -=- -=- -=- -=- -=- -=- -=- -=- -=- Barbara Carlson Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh PA [log in to unmask] Work: (412) 268-1342 Home: (412) 481-5927 http://www.gsia.cmu.edu/andrew/bcarlson/home.html (under construction) Thought for the day: If "boring women have immaculate homes," I must be very interesting! -=- -=- -=- -=- -=- -=- -=- -=- -=- -=- -=- -=- -=- -=- -=- -=- -=- -=- -=- [Posted in FML issue 2010]