I'm not sure if I told this story before, but even if so, maybe it's
worth retelling anyway.
 
A couple of years ago my wife, Joan, and I went out on the screen porch
for an early morning breakfast and coffee.  It was also the ferret's play
area, and included their sandbox and playhouse (a three-story tower).
 
The previous evening, our youngest son had a group of friends over for a
backyard picnic to celebrate college graduation.  One of the remnants,
left on the porch floor, was a small cooler three-quarter full of melted
ice and with 4 cans of beer sitting on the bottom.  Of course it didn't
take the ferrets long to discover the cooler.  It also didn't take Doc,
our Thomas Edison ferret, more than a minute to figure out that the
cooler opened by sliding the top back and down.
 
So, standing there, looking over the edge of the cooler were Ollie (if
you said that Ollie was as dumb as a post, it would be an insult to
posts, but he's lovable), Scamp (the Alpha ferret of the gang), and Doc.
Duncan (our soccer champion who can push a jingle bell ball across the
floor at amazing speeds) was pushing a jingle bell ball across the floor.
 
Scamp decided that those cans looked inviting.  He dunked his head under
the ice melt, but couldn't get a grip on the cans.  Again and again he
tried, but all he got was wet.  Doc watched intently.  You could see him
studying the problem.  Then Doc stuck not only his head but also front
paws into the water, moved a can around until it was facing up with the
pull-tab towards him.  With his teeth, he grabbed the can by the pull-tab
and edge and lifted it out of the water, over the edge of the cooler, and
dropped it on the floor.  Duncan left his jingle bell ball, ran over,
lined up the can with his nose and rolled the beer can over to the
playhouse.  You could almost hear him singing "Roll Out the Barrel" as
he went.
 
With hardly a pause, while Duncan rolled the first can away, Doc
maneuvered the next can into position, grabbed, lifted and dropped it
to the floor.  Duncan was there in a flash and off the second can went.
Scamp and Ollie looked on in amazement.
 
The third can went the way of the first two, and Doc was studying the
last can.  Scamp was studying Doc.  Then as Doc leaned over to get a
better look at that can, Scamp took his front paw, put it behind Doc's
head, and shoved Doc under the water.
 
The last can remained in the cooler while one very wet ferret chased one
not so wet ferret across the floor and into the house.
 
That was one of those "Why didn't I have my camcorder with me?"
slap-on-the-forehead moments.
 
Dick B.
[Posted in FML issue 4517]