I read FML tales of ferrets escaping outside, and I shudder to think it might be me outside looking for my loved one in drainage pipes and garbage bags. Actually, I have done that, only it turned out the loved one wasn't outside but inside, in one of the places your ferret can't possibly be...but is. Both incidents involved Misha, my 6 y/o MF sable female, whose intelligence surpasses that of anyone I know. The first time I thought she had escaped from the basement. After searching outside for hours, I sat down in the basement and cried, mourning my tiny baby fending for herself in suburbia. When I finally cried myself out, I heard a tiny scratching sound in the corner of the basement...and my husband's golf bag. GOLF BAG? No way can she be in the golf bag! It's upright! It's slick leather! It's full of clubs! I turned it on its side and she shot out like a ball from a cannon, electric fur and all. The last time I "lost" Misha, we lived in an upstairs condo. After searching for hours, I believed she had crawled under the counterspace and was between the walls or floors or worse, downstairs in our neighbor's condo. I was waiting for the shriek from downstairs when I heard the tiny scratching sound again, this time from underneath our stackable washer/dryer. The space was so tight between the washer and the floor, I could not get my smallest finger under there. I had to get a screwdriver and freed her by taking the front panel off the washer. Lesson learned: be very quiet and very creative when you're looking for "lost" ferrets. Ferretz Rule, Lynne and the 8 fuzzies who have dusted where no one has ever dusted before. [Posted in FML issue 2151]