In response to Ruprecht Kirche's (G.) Robert Church's positing that ferrets
can "smell" water, especially his blind ferret, let's conduct a little test
that all of you with blind ferrets may want to try.  Let's see if you are
in agreement with such a belief.
 
Using two pint sized bowls (ceramic) fill each brimfull with water and
place on floor of ferret room where there are no naturally occurring air
currents (doors open, furnace on, fans on, etc.).
 
Tape to the floor about 6 inches away from the bowls duct tape, sticky side
up, such that the blind ferret must walk on and across the sticky tape
before it can reach either bowl.  In one bowl the water should be hot to
the point of almost producing steam vapor.  The other bowl - cold water.
 
Now since the hot water is adding to the atmosphere water molecules at a
much faster rate that the cold water is, it stands to reason that the air
around the hot water bowl should be more water "stinky" and thereby attract
the ferret to the hot water bowl more strongly than to the cold water bowl.
 
Repeat this test say 6 times over as many days.  If the ferret always goes
to the hot water tape stopper*, then one may rationally conclude that
ferrets can indeed smell water.  If not, then one may assume that ferrets
cannot smell water.
 
Please post your results on the FML and at FerretSciencNStuff.  See
http://www.onelist.com/community/FerretScienceNStuff.
 
*Tape stopper stops the ferret from advancing onto the hot water bowl and
he can be picked up and taken to the cold water bowl.
 
Thanks    Edward  Lipinski   F.E.R.R.E.T.S.,NW.
[Posted in FML issue 2881]