Hi all, The short: Potpie got outside, we found her quickly, she's happy and fine. The long: I played host for a ferret-friendly guest this weekend. I trusted this person some months ago to watch Potpie for a week at my house while I was gone; he's a good friend. Anyway, he left the front door unlocked, and it swung ajar, and Potpie snuck out under the front screen. Some unspecified amount of time later (it was morning), he knocks on my door to wake me up, and I find out that he had let the ferrets out before taking a shower and she'd snuck out some time during the span of time he wasn't watching her. I put on shoes and a jacket, grabbed a squeaky toy, and went outside. Since i live on a major intersection, the first thing I did was look at the road and the sidewalks carefully, but I kinda knew she wasn't there - I was actually extremely calm, considering this was *Potpie*. Certain of you listmembers understand! Anyway, my guest and I split up and went around either side of the house, and as we got around to the back, my guest spotted Potpie sitting underneath my car in the driveway in back. I knelt down, squeaked the toy, and she ran right over. She was wet, muddy, shaking, and when we got back inside, very skitterish. Several points: It was cold and rainy, and Potpie *loathes* getting her feet wet. Whenever Potpie gets outside (usually on leash or under close supervision), she sticks close to the house, and never ventures more than a few feet away from it. The only dry areas by the house were under the car and under the back porch. For whatever reason, i knew we'd find her back there, and we did. Also, knowing Potpie, it either took her 15 seconds or 15 minutes to get there, but once she got there, she wasn't going anywhere. As a side note, this guest is an extremely trusted, very very good friend of mine who is extremely careful and considerate and who was very distraught by the entire event. I have always trusted my ferrets with him and vice versa, and continue to do so, but accidents obviously can and do happen. Melissa and the once-again jailbird [Posted in FML issue 2290]