HELP!!! My darling little sable Baxter has developed a great new way to get my attention early in the morning when he wants out of his cage. He is ONLY caged from the time I go to sleep to the time I get up. He wouldn't even have to be caged that often except that I can't trust him not to bite me while I sleep. That is another tale, though. My other ferret is just fine with this arrangement, however, Baxter is not pleased. He has found a "wonderful" new way of showing me he wants out. Let me first say I have a midwest playpen. He puts his mouth on one of the cross bars and proceeds to shove back and forth creating the most god-awful racket. Basically he is banging his head on the bars of his cage. This wouldn't be too terrible except he decides that 4:30 in the morning is a good time for him to be allowed out to play. The day before yesterday I tried to squirt him with a bottle of water every time I did it. All I got from him was big tail and severe hissing. This morning I banged back at him and hissed. He stopped, BUT I never know with Baxter how long something like that is going to last. He is kind of hard headed. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. I am sure one of these days he is going to chip a tooth or something on that cage. On a lighter note, Baxter has discovered the best ferret game in the world. (Besides digging in Minka's water dish). He LOVES it when I am putting the clean sheets on the bed. I usually put the fitted sheet on so that he is inside. Then we wrestle around like that. Once he finds his way free we start all over and I put the top sheet on. He goes absolutely crazy by that point and just about dies and goes to heaven when I start adding the blankets. It is a great romp!!! I like it too because Baxter tends to bite HARD and is a little hard headed about how hard he is biting so there is a barrier between me and his sharp little fangs. One final question: What are ferrets generally looking for when they speed bump on the floor? Attention? Minka has been doing it a lot lately and I don't quite know why. Thanks! joanne & Minka Rue (aka speedbump) & Baxter too (aka head hinderer) [Posted in FML issue 2619]