Vermin, my first ferret, would steal the red straws out of our Big Gulp
cups, discarded orange peels, and forks.  When we rearranged our living
room furniture, we found a huge stash under the couch.  I was not yet
wise in the ways of ferrets, and had been wondering for some time,
"Where are all the forks disappearing to?"  He also had an odd fixation
with plastic squeeze tubes... the kind KY and ball bearing grease come
in.  Luckily, neither substance proved to be harmful.  Just messy.  A
bit like a self-induced overdose of hairball treatment.
 
Sid, my second ferret, was blind and didn't go in for anything that
didn't make noise.  His special favorite thing was plastic grocery bags.
He had a personal mission to beat them all into submission.  He also
periodically tried to beat Vermin into submission, but since he was blind
and Vermin wasn't Vermin usually escaped and snuck back up on him to get
revenge.
 
Zan, who I got as half of a bonded pair from the local shelter, fell in
love with a toy I made for him: I cut off a leg from a child's pair of
sweat pants, sewed one end shut, stuffed a plastic ceral bag inside, and
knotted the other end closed.  Then I tied a jingly cat-ball toy to it.
I called it the 'crinkle bag'.  He would grab the poor thing, shake it
so hard I thought he'd give himself whiplash, then drag it under an
overturned milk crate and fall asleep.  He'd also engage in pitched
battle with a chew-weasel tied onto the end of a string.
 
Zoe, Zan's other half from the shelter, is more interested in climbing
up to places she shouldn't be than in any particular toy, but she became
quite fond of stealing Zan's red crinkle bag, and when I made a second
one out of a Crown Royal bag, she adopted it as her own.  She also has
a very strong attraction to shoe & boot insoles.
 
Blitzie, a later adoption from the same shelter, used to be in love with
a plastic Easter egg, and loves doing fierce battle with blankets and
beanbags.  I cover her with the blanket or part of the beanbag, scruff
up her fur, and then uncover her, whereupon she jumps backwards and
forwards, chuckles, and pounces on the offending fabric.
 
Ziya, who I got from someone who was asked to 'babysit' her for a few
days and still had her 5 months later, is the first dedicated sock
fiend I've owned.  But we can't let her steal our socks anymore, after
discovering she was actually sucking on and *eating* them.  So I took a
pair of red wool socks, did the cereal bag/cat-bell trick, and now she
has 'crinkle socks' that she can't get in her mouth to suck on.  She
put them both in the bathroom, and keeps them in line with regular
whiplash-shaking treatments.  Another favorite, under supervision, is
to stuff an orange rubber ball (with a hole cut in it, a bit larger than
her head) with old socks, and watch her drag it frantically all over the
house trying to pull all the socks out.
 
Never seen two ferrets with the same fixation... Can't wait to see what
the next one comes up with. ;-)
 
-Teresa
[Posted in FML issue 4616]