Hjalmar used to LOVE to play hide and seek, but he couldn't figure out
that if he covered his head we could still see his pudgy little bum.
So, we'd ask "Wheeeeeeerrre's Hjalmar?" and he would hide his head, but
he would be heh-heh-heh laughing and his chubby rear would be sticking
out with his tail whipping side to side in excitement!
 
Meltdown LOVED children, and she was also very extra gentle with them.
If we were at the vet's and we saw a crying child she would INSIST on
having the child hold her and on trying to comfort the child.  Then if
that didn't work she would want to do her tricks for the child.
 
When she first came home she was 5 weeks old and we stopped to get food.
I had a cheesburger.  Well, she took one whiff and insisted on sharing
it and the entire time she was eating she repeated "Yip, yap, yip, yap"
over and over.
 
"Where's Warp?"  Steve asked Meltdown years later. No motion from her.
"Meltdown get Warp, then Meltdown get treat." he repeated several times
over.  Meltie climbed under our platform bed and emerged, dragging a
half-asleep Warp by the neck, deposited Warpie on Steve's foot, looked
up at him and then licked her chops.
 
We first discovered ferret spraying when Steve hadn't put his roller
skiis away right and stepped on one which sent both him and ski rocketing
in cartoon mode across the room.  Tandy's response was to turn tail and
spray so Steve had to make himself fall to not run into her.
 
Ruffle didn't have many words, but she knew a number of body parts.
(She had some painful conditions due to multiple birth deformities  and
it helped to be able to ask what was hurting and wait for an assenting
nose bump.)  She got to know those words so well that you could put
down a toy ferret and ask the body parts and she would diligently bump
the right places on the toy ferret.
 
Ruffle also learned to give herself times out if she was too agitated.
She would walk a few paces away, turn her back on everyone and then just
lie there till she was calmed down again.
 
Vet hospital people can be funny, too.  Scooter was another one we took
due to many deformities, with the first obvious one being unilateral
syndactyly -- a hand malformation which is his case was hard on him till
he'd had two surgeries.  On the way home we stopped by to show the vets
and one of the office workers took one look at him and mournfully cried
out, "and it's his writing hand, too!"
 
Glueball loved the color blue.  She would preferentially collect blue
things.  Anytime we found a stash of all blue objects we knew who owned
it.  So, one day when we saw a bright blue scrunchie we brought it home
for her.  She took one look, put her nose in the opening, then used her
hands to roll it up over her head, and pranced around in her own claimed
"collar".  She did that on and off at least several days a week for her
entire life after then and would even carry it to bed with her.
 
When the other ferrets used to hide from us if we could find Sherman we
could find all of them.  Once we worked him up into wanting to search
he would seek them out for us one by one for each repeated name, but he
would never collect them himself, just stand there and casually point
to just the right individual.
 
Meeteetse had her own way of telling us that she was sick.  She would
come up and gently hold a big toe in her mouth.  She did that ONLY if
she didn't feel well, and once it helped save her life.  (She had a tiny
uncharacteristic cough but she also did her toe holding thing so we made
an emergency appointment and insisted on chest x-rays -- which is the
only reason she survived severe pneumonia and plurisy.)
 
When Seven of Six would get adrenal growths she would hold down the
youngest male ferret and piddle on his head.  It was her first sign.
 
Spot played mobile hide and and seek.  One time he had us looking for
him for 3 hours.
 
Mornie can get over any gate, and if the slippery petroleum jelly trick
is tried she jumps up and catches the gate with her underarms instead of
her hands.
 
Haleakala had a strong personality and she was really stubborn.  We don't
recall what annoyed her one day, but Steve had done something wrong.  Her
response?  She turned her back on him.  Then she backed up, lifted tail
and turded on his foot!
[Posted in FML issue 4856]