I have shared my room with a non-human animal for almost as long as I can remember. The animal has changed over the years, of course, as they tend to have shorter life-spans than I. Not long ago, I slept with my rat in his rat cage at the foot of my bed. When he died, I went to a lot of trouble to move my new ferret from the tiny cage she slept in in the garage to an expensive several-story one which has taken the place of my rat's cage. It took a while, but my ferret and I did finally get used to each other's sleep schedules, and things were going amazingly well. Unfortunately, I recently discovered that if I do not keep her litter box firmly fixed into the corner which she has chosen to use to do her business, then she will not use it. Thus, as a solution to the dilemma I found it necessary to tape the box firmly into place. Since then, like clock-work, the moment that I climb into bed, even if she had fallen asleep while I was preparing for bed, she will instantly jump up - as if on cue - scurry to the bottom floor of her cage and set to work at scratching around the bottom of her litter box in an unsuccessful attempt at relocating the box to a place "out of the way". This has been going on for a solid number of weeks now. Each night I get into bed, allowing her the benefit of the doubt; hoping that she will just go to sleep. But to my utter amazement, and agony, she goes to work at the same time each night, as if she though trying to make a point. I have tried moving the box to different places in the cage which might suit her, but then she does not use it or else she still insists on scratching at it's base. If she had her way, she would be able to push and shove the thing all over the floor of her cage whenever she wanted, but that is and would be equally as noisy and twice as messy. I am at a loss, and I would really appreciate any suggestions. Unfortunately, I happen to be overwhelmed with school work right now (trying to graduate) and have gotten terribly behind in my e-mails, so I don't want to promise that I will be able to respond to everyone who writes. But please know that it would certainly mean a lot to me and the fact that I will not be able to respond will not be because I am not grateful! I just can not handle anything else hanging over my head right now. I hope that you understand. Thank you very much! Sincerely, J.L.T. [Posted in FML issue 2329]