Hi Fellow FML'ers.  For what it's worth I thought I'd share this with
everyone.
 
I have three healthy and active ferrets who dislike cigarette smoke.  I'm
not a heavy smoker but I do go through about 1/2 a pack a day.  I noticed
some time back that none of my ferrets liked to be held when I had just
finished smoking.  I assume they could smell it on my clothing or my breath.
As a result I avoided smoking when I planed to handle any of them.
 
A few months ago I noticed that my cigarette lighters were starting to
disappear.  "No big thing," I thought, they must think they're a toy of some
kind.  I could locate them most of the time by looking in the ferrets hiding
spots so it didn't matter much to me.
 
More recently, over the past few weeks, I noticed whole packs of cigarettes
missing.  At first I thought I misplaced them but then I saw a few loose
cigarettes on the floor.  "Ah Hah," I said, the ferrets took them.  I didn't
give it much thought at first but it quickly esalated to the point where I
couldn't set down a pack either open or unopened.  One of the little guys
was taking them as soon as I left them.
 
Now mind you, I sort of spoil these little guys and they all have lots of
toys of their own.  I couldn't imagine that a ferret would want to play with
a pack of cigarettes so badly.  Well, after a bit of closer observation I
learned he wasn't playing with them, he was simply hiding them from me.
Even if I place them in an out of reach location he still trys to get to
them.  He doesn't even do that for raisins.  Is it possible that he is that
determined to keep me from smoking?
 
For the time being I decided to smoke as little as possible around the house
and see how they react.  Now the little female is giving me kisses on the
face again which she used to do but stopped for a while and the big male is
spending more time on my lap.  As far as the little thief goes, he's just as
mischievous as ever.  Now he seems to think that the base for my QuickCam is
his toy and he will locate it no matter where I try and hide it.  I found
him in my desk drawer earlier today with his teeth holding onto the rubber
base of the QuickCam like his life depended on it.  :-)
 
Oh well, he is a ferret after all so what can I do.  At least he got me to
cut down on smoking even more so I guess I should be happy with his behavior.
 
 
   --Blake
 
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    Best regards from, Genki, Kanki, and Hana-Chan, my cute ferrets.
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    Blake F. Parker     [log in to unmask]     www.ultranet.com/~bfp
                            [log in to unmask]
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[Posted in FML issue 1851]