I swear!!

[acodlin]

These guys are TRYING to give me a heart attack. No ifs ands or buts about it. Its intentional! The other night we couldn't find Jinx to put meds in his ears.. he's blind and very predictable. We found him after an hour up inside the couch asleep. Whew.... Then this morning I let the younger bunch out and I was looking for Bree.. no bree in the cage, no bree out running around... where is she??? She's new here but she's never shown an ounce of interest in the doors. Checked everywhere, another hour spent searching... finally found her! Where? In the dog kennel with the dog. She must have crawled in the kennel and fallen asleep and we didn't know she was in there when we put everyone to bed. She is really really good about going to sleep back in her cage when shes done playing so I didn't even miss her for the bed time count. So she spent the night with Kenzi who thankfully didn't mind sharing her space.

So that's enough right? Nope about 4pm I realized I hadn't seen Nadia since this morning. Not totally out of character but I thought I needed to double check.. Can't find her, looked EVERYWHERE.. started to get really really worried because she's 100xs worse about finding bad things to get into then my farm kids. We just couldn't find her inside. Tim headed outside and I threw on some shoes to go too and he comes back in the house with her. She was asleep in a box on our front porch thank god. When he took the trash out this morning, she escaped in the time it took him to set one bag out and walk maybe 10 steps to pick up the other back to set it outside. We are so so lucky.

I HATE our front door.. in the past three years we've had Sasha escape outside twice, 5 of them escape once at the same time (back door didnt latch) and Jack got out last thanksgiving and was outside all night long. Its just a simple screen door but all it takes is a little nudge and its open. I really want to replace it but its not in the budget at the moment. I can't wait till we can move back to ohio because a ferret room is #1 on my must have list. Its so stressful here because both doors are easily opened if the little hook and eye latch isnt keeping it closed. I'm sure everyone must think I'm terrible and I should have learned my lesson the first time.. but it seems like no matter how careful we are it just keeps happening. I'm just so glad that I realized I hadn't seen her and we were able to start the search and find her before something bad happened or it got dark.

[Sherry]

Thank heavens you found ALL of them! Wow.

[Heather]

Thank goodness that you found them safe and sound. It's so scary when they go missing.
ciao

[Tako]

Our front door on our apartment does not latch properly, to the extent that we can actually get the deadbolt locked in place without the handle being properly latched. So I'll unlock the deadbolt so that it's open (no handle lock) when hubs gets home only to have to rush in to the living room at some point to yank our way-too-smart-for-his-own-britches cat out from where he's trying to figure out how to leverage the heavy metal door open enough for him to get more than his big ol' head through it. I hate our door too!

[lorelei0922]

whew .. so glad she stayed close!!! and glad Nadia is safe this evening!

[acodlin]

She is such a turd. She tried to make a mad dash out into the rain this morning. She doesn't even hesitate at the door...just goes full speed on outside!

[Sherry]

Oh my! I think first thing I'd be doing with her is to register her microchip with anyone and everyone!
What a brat.

[lorelei0922]

yes PLEASE DO Amanda.. you have all the info you should need including a letter from me transfering ownership... so... you should be able to register her microchip with any logging company in your area..

You may even want to check with any local animal rescue shelters where animals may be taken when found, many of them maintain a list of local pets as well ... making it easier to locate owners and reunite them!

[nancyl]

You might consider putting a barrier up a few feet from the door. Something high enough to slow her down. You'll have to step over it, which is somewhat unhandy but is better than her flying out the door every time it's opened.

[acodlin]

We are trying to come up with something but it has to be pretty tall because she can climb/jump like no other and the area is wide which makes it harder to find a big enough gate. She is registered with home again. Problem is we live in the country and there is a lot of wild dogs/cats/coyotes and our neighbors are spread out a bit. If she got out she has no fear of anything We just have to be super alert to her where she's at when we use the door until we find something.

[nancyl]

It sounds like you might need to build a wall with a gate in it. Go through that gate, close it, put her back on the other side and then open the door and go through it.

[jadeguppy]

What about stretching a play pen across the area in front of the door? They can,t climb those.

[Heather]

She'll climb it in a flash I bet....I know my brats will...but it will give you time to do something about it. They're greased lightning but not quite that fast
ciao

[acodlin]

We are not very crafty people so building stuff isn't easy lol but it seems like the only solution. Playpens...she climbs in and out of naobi play pen with ease. She's so good at climbing and jumping!

[Heather]

The playpen would only be to slow her down so you could do something about your happy little wanderer. I have to admit, that is one of the reasons why the UK crew all wear bells. They're so fast and unlike my other fuzzes they don't stop and sniff before they go out the door. ....they're just gone
ciao