Deanna Dean's post about her ferrets unzipping their carrier reminded me of the time I smuggled 2 of my own monsters into my office. My coworkers had been very curious about them, so I finally relented and stopped by the office with them following a vet appointment one day. I'm posting anonymously because I work for a certain agency that is well-known to this list and I've been told by persons who should know, that the FML is monitored by them--relax--I don't live in California. However, it's against the rules to take pets into the office. While we were there, the boy (I'll call him Mr. Ug) discovered that he could unzip the soft-sided carrier. Since the office is far from being ferret-proofed, I found myself constantly poking heads back in and rezipping. Finally I hit upon the idea of fashioning a lock from a paper clip. I straightened out the clip and attached one end to the hole in the zipper-pull, and attached the other to the ring that held the carrying strap. Feeling quite proud of myself for outsmarting Ug, which is no mean feat, I said, "There, now get out of that!" I should have known better. Ug then proceeded to bite the stitches that sewed the zipper into the bag, loosened them and pulled the zipper itself out of the bag. That would have been bad enough, but I really resented that triumphant sneer on his face, as his head emerged once again. Everybody else seemed to think that they were adorable, however. I threw the carrier away. Now they travel in heavy molded plastic with a steel door. So far, Ug hasn't figured out how to escape it. [Posted in FML issue 2078]