Dooks to all, and hugs and condolences to all who've lost their beloved friends. Got home from work Friday night, and I let the fuzzies out to play. While the teen was upstairs in her room and I was downstairs exercising with Richard Simmons, little did I realize an event was taking place that would shake Sara & I. When I had finished my workout, I went upstairs and saw Calvin laying outside (or so I thought) of the round clothes basket. I called his name, and he didn't respond, which really frightened me. I went into the bathroom and discovered he was trapped in one of the 'holes' in the side. He's taken a growth spurt lately has become a very big boy. He'd tried to crawl through the basket holes like he's always done, and this time didn't make it. He was caught just above the hips, and I don't know how long he'd been like that. Long enough, we discovered that in his pain he'd almost chewed through the side of the basket. I scooped him up gently to ease the pressure, and in his agony he tried to bite me. I talked him down and tried to keep my voice level as I called for Sara. She knew something was wrong by my tone and was right there. I had her go downstairs and get scissors, then she came back and we started to cut him free. Once he was free I rubbed him to help his circulation, and all he could do was take a few steps then drag himself. He was so tired he fell asleep. This clothes basket was made of stiff plastic, so if all of you have any of these, please, please be careful. Here I thought I had the upstairs 'ferret proofed', and got proved wrong. Luckily everything is all right and that basket is no longer down. On the topic of keeping the kids occupied: I bought some plastic Easter eggs and put navy beans in them. I rattle them, bat them at the fuzzballs, and watch the fun. Kit gets one underneath her and runs backwards for quite sometime. I also took the plastic grocery sacks you get (had people give me a lot of them, too) and put them in a pillow case. Sewed the case shut and put it down. Its a hoot to watch them walk on it, stick their noses down to see what it is, watch as they flip it (its so light they can crawl under it), and watched Scully try to drag it off. On the subject of the Rainbow Bridge. I first heard of the bridge from the book "The Heavenly Horse of the Outer Most West", and "Piper at the Gate" (the HHOMW's sequel) I like to think that all our fur children wait for us, and if its at the end of the rainbow, well, there's our pot of gold. Skeeter---Hiya kiddo! Rebecca ======================= Rebecca McFarlane Secretary Basic Medical Sciences School Veterinary Medicine Purdue University West Lafayette, IN 47907-1246 Phone: 765-494-8632 Fax: 765-494-0781 "Do not meddle in the affairs of dragons, for thou art crunchy and taste good with ketchup" [Posted in FML issue 2616]