My first Christmas with a ferret was an enlightening experience to say
the least.  After 6 years I've figured out a lot of the tricks, however
something new seems to happen every year.
 
One night our tree was blinking quite prettily.  I left the room, and when I
came back, the lights were no longer blinking.  Thinking a bulb had burned
out, I started checking all the light bulbs.  I came to one socket, and
there was no light bulb.  Scratching my head, I wondered how it could have
fallen out.  I replaced the light, and blink away they went.  As I sat down,
I see our ferret standing on the back of a chair near the tree, opening her
mouth to bite a light.  I yelled NO!, but of course, we aren't sure what no
means to a ferret.  I had to chase a ferret down the hall with a xmas light
in her mouth.  I think I saw someone else post this, but it seems that if
the lights are on and blinking, they are fair game, but turn them off, and
they get ignored.  I now string everything above ferret reach (so far she
hasnt tried climbing the tree), and put only ferret safe items on the lower
branches.
 
Christmas presents are always a challenge too.  We have a tree skirt shark
every year around Christmas.  Any presents on top of the skirt seem to fall
over.  Our ferret also doesn't understand that you have to wait to Christmas
to unwrap presents, AND that some presents are not hers!
 
Scratching feet under the covers.
 
We also have a foot scratcher under the covers.  It must be some ferret
ritual, but I've found that our ferret usually just wants me to move my feet
so she can sleep on the warm spot my feet made, or she wants me to get up in
the middle of the night to get her a drink of water from the faucet.
 
Tools
It always amazed me watching our ferret get on the kitchen counters.  She
learned that by opening the doors of the cabinets in the corner, and letting
them bang together back to back, that she could then use the open doors to
climb onto the kitchen counter.  I don't think I would have thought of that
if I were her size!  It's almost scary watching them figure out what to use
around them to get where they aren't supposed to be. I still think ferrets
are really smarter than us humans, they sure are good people manipulators!
 
Waiting in CA for fuzzy friends to become legal
    and the fuzzy friend who unwraps everyones Christmas presents
 
[CK]
[Posted in FML issue 1400]