My best problem-solving story:

One day I found Sam and Frankie playing with something I didn't think
they should have. I don't remember now what it was, but I took it away
from them and put it on the kitchen counter. I was still in the kichen,
starting dinner. Frankie, not to be deterred, started climbing one of
the empty cardboard boxes destined for recycling. I laughed at his
determination. He gained altitude, but the box was too far from the
counter. So Frankie got down, pushed the box up against the kitchen
counter and climbed it again! He still couldn't reach, though. So
Frankie got down again, went back to the pile of boxes, and started
shoving another one towards the counter! My amusement turned to
amazement.

I don't know what Frankie had in mind; he would have had to stack the
two boxes to get to the counter, which I'm pretty sure was beyond his
dexterity. Though you never know. But meanwhile, as I'm watching
Frankie, Sam has been playing with another toy, which he drops between
my feet, and backs away, with a 'play with me' look. Who could resist?
So I get down on one knee, as I usually do to pick something up off the
floor - and Sam makes a sudden end run. He dashes behind me, runs up my
back, jumps onto the counter, grabs the forbidden item, leaps off onto
the conveniently placed box, and dashes away with the item to the
safety of the couch. Frankie runs after him.

Ferrets 1 Humans 0.

I could never decide who was smarter -- Frankie with his engineering
aspirations, or Sam with his misdirection. (Or, is there even a remote
possibility that they colluded? That was an awfully tall counter to
jump from without a conveniently-placed box to land on.) And all this
from walnut-sized brains...

Claire
fondly remembering Sam the Great White Weasel and Lord Franklin the
Explorer...

[Posted in FML 7058]