This is such a unique story that I just had to share it.
 
If you are familiar with me then you are familiar with Doris.  For those of
you that have been reading the FML for years, you may remember me relating
a story about 5 years ago about one of my ferrets that I thought I had
"lost" at a truck stop in Wyoming.  I was driving a semi-truck at the time.
It ended up that the ferret, who was Doris, had just climbed into the
wiring duct inside of the cab.  After I found her I located where she had
gotten in and sealed that area.  I learned a great lesson that one is
NEVER through "ferret proofing" any area.
 
Well, this story is also about Doris.  I had previously written a story
about how Doris loves to steal my wallet, take out the money and stash it.
She would then take my wallet, with the remaining credit cards, and stash
it in a different place.  I know that sounds like I am making it up, but I
promise that I am not.  But, as Paul Harvey would say "And now for the rest
of the story".
 
After 6+ years of using my leather wallet it finally wore out.  I bought
a new wallet and transferred everything into it.  Since Doris never chewed
on my old wallet but only used to haul it around with her other toys, I
figured that I would give my old wallet to her.  She always love to go thru
my pants pockets, after I undressed for the day, to find my wallet so I
decided to put the old wallet into my pants pocket to let her "steal" it
one more time.  I put the pants on the floor and let Doris, and the other
kids, out to play.
 
Doris didn't disappoint me at all.  She made right for the pants that I had
laid on the floor and started riffling through the pockets.  I smiled when
she went into the pocket but she surprised me when came out without the
wallet.  She stood there looking at the pocket for a minute and then turned
away to play with the other kids.  This shocked and kind of "hurt" me.  I
had go through the whole charade and she just "blew it off".  I recovered
quickly and thought that she must just have not seen it.  So I pulled it
out and tried it again, this time leaving it a little exposed.  I picked
Doris up and put her right on the wallet.  She sniffed it and left.  I was
shocked.  Why didn't she want the wallet?  While I pondered this an idea
came to mind.  What if I put a dollar bill in the wallet?  I laughed at
myself because that sounds absurd.  She is a ferret after all, she doesn't
have a concept of money, or does she???
 
I took the old wallet and put a dollar bill into it, laughing at myself the
whole time.  I took the wallet over to Doris.  I opened it to show her that
there was a dollar in the wallet and then I sat it down.  She went right to
the wallet, grabbed it by the corner and took off running to her "primary"
hidey hole with the wallet!
 
So to answer the question, "Do ferrets or specifically "FEMALE" ferrets
understand the concept of money?" Well, I don't know about you but I am
now a believer.
 
Again, believe it or not, but it happened.  :-)
 
Jason, Doris, Billy, Chance, Cutie, Abu, and Klondike
E-Mail: [log in to unmask]
Home Page: www.users.qwest.net/~sammysrefuge
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Nobody but the one carrying the load knows how much it weighs.
[Posted in FML issue 3534]