Hi all, just wanted to share a little anecdote regarding whether ferrets
are cognitive enough to miss us when we're not around.
 
My buisness has consisted of three for the past 2 1/2 years.  In this
time the bandits have been successfully contained in their own room by
a plexiglass gate.
 
Recently and without warning, the most athletic of my crew, Scotch,
developed the ability to pull the gate down!  Several escapes and many
attempted countermeasures later, Scotch was no longer actually getting the
gate down but was still spending all of his playtime incessantly digging at
it.  I was getting very frustrated, trying to figure out if there was an
underlying cause to his behavior (I once read about someone who described
their ferret as 'emotionally sensitive' -- the phrase fits scotch
perfectly!).  I could almost see the light bulb coming on over my head when
I realized that with end-of-semester papers and exams imminent, I had not
been actively playing with them much over the preceeding week or so.  The
ferrets were getting the same amount of out-of-cage time, but I was not
involved in their play directly.  Since then I have made a concerted effort
to spend time in their room with them every day, and *poof*, no more
gate-digging even after I leave the room.
 
An interesting twist to this story is that of the three, Scotch is by far
the least interested in playing with me.  Apparently he just needs to know
that I'm available should he wish to do so!
 
My regards to all the lovely fuzzies and their owners.
*Tiana
[Posted in FML issue 3041]