I'll gladly offer up my own stupid mistakes with my ferrets! * Free roam ferrets - Boo was a free roaming ferret when she was by herself. Which is exactly why Boo got loose one night while we were asleep, and disappeared for 6 weeks. We got her back, but not until I had PLENTY of time to wallow in my guilt. The ferrets are now caged every night, regardless of if we have to work or not, and caged all day until we come home. * Tassy and the fan - Tassy was a wild ass kit. Which is why she decided to attack the fan one night. We didn't pay attention to the fact that it was within ferret leaping distance. We heard this AWFUL, hair raising scream and went running. There she was, hanging from the fan. She had jumped at it, slid down it and gotten a toe caught where the wire narrowed. She broke a toe. You can see the toe is different to this day. * Lack of maturity dealing with keeping a clean apartment - Hell, it was easy to blame having a trashed apartment on 5 ferrets! Until the day my ex-sleazy landlord decided he wanted to look in EVERYONE'S apartment while they were at work, and without notice. Needless to say, we had to move within a week. Not to say my place is spotless every single minute of the day now, but I *always* look at my place now and think, "What would the landlord do if they walked in right now?" * Lack of timely ferret proofing - We let the ferrets sleep where they shouldn't. Under the stove, under cabinets. So when we moved, they expected the same. The FIRST night we moved in, Howie found the ONE corner of the entire friggin cabinet structure that was not 100% naturally sealed off by the wood work. In he went. Except in this place, that opening went underneath the entire place. We had to rip the bottom of the entire structure out to get him out. Now it's nailed up. The stove is blocked off with a divider Phil made. Then there was the plywood Tassy and Maiya knocked over. They got out the back door and we didn't know. We only found out when we came down from watching a movie. Luckily, they were next door at the vacant apartment and came to squeaky toys. EVERYONE makes mistakes. No one is immune. No one is perfect. And because people have the guts to tell their mistakes instead of hiding behind flame walls, I check my dishwasher a BILLION times before turning it on. I head count ALL 8 before I throw trash out. I check water, food, and health religiously. I vacuum when I see signs of "stuff" on the floor. I clean cages out religiously. Not because I was born a perfect ferret mom, but because of fellow ferret parents and their mistakes. But as always, I guess it is easier for some people to point the finger than swallow their words and let it go. [Posted in FML issue 2766]