Ferret Barriers and Obstacle Courses

I have, over time, had to invent ever more creative barriers to keep the ferrets out of the kitchen. Pet gates got climbed or else the oh-so-tiny Romana would squeeze through them. Pet gate with plexiglass imbedded to prevent climbing or squeezing through worked for a while until five ferrets teamed up to pull down the gate. Just plain plexiglass worked for a while until ferrets discovered that being able to grab one edge or one corner would mean the plexiglass could be pulled, pushed, or lifted, depending on my configuration. If the configuration was particularly clever on my part two or three ferrets would team up to undo it together.

The most recent solution is plexiglass sandwiched between a wall and a large, heavy object (i.e.: a full steamer trunk). I have to be careful in my configuration because if I give Romana or Zephyr a fraction of a millimeter to work with they'll find a way to tear it all down and get over the trunk. Ferrets are too smart for their own good. Anyway this mostly has worked well but it creates an obstacle course for me to get over if I need access.

Saturday I didn't succeed getting over the obstacle course. My bare foot impacted on trunk and the small toe on my right foot was broken and dislocated. I'm posting the gory details in my Entropy Blog.

With all the worry about Nyssa posting about my own injury somehow seemed unimportant. I guess that says a lot about where my priorities are.