canvas item losing mouse focus

[The Surprises <thesurprises1 attbi com>]

I am using the gnome canvas item's 'event' event for moving a canvas
item around a canvas.  I have multiple canvas' packed into a vbox.  When
moving an item around it's canvas with the mouse button pressed, if the
mouse moves into a different canvas, I lose the current canvas item's
event handling.  I'd like to have the canvas item keep it's event
handling while the button is pressed even if it happens to move into
another canvas.  Is this possible?  

Thanks
Jason