I sent this email to Wolfy in response to her quest to chart the
intelligence of deaf ferrets.  She asked that I pass this email along,
and so I have. :)
 
Hi Wolfy!
 
Just wanted to toss my .02 in on deaf ferrets... or my deaf ferrets,
anyway.  :)
 
For my ferret Chaos, I would put him at about average on most things.
However, he is way above average (5+ lol) on logical thinking.  I used to
think he was a bit of a dolt, but he's actually quite clever.  (He does
have that "duh" look on his face all the time, though!)
 
I say he's above average because a year or so ago, he had a bunny fur toy
that he just adored.  He wouldn't play with it, really, but it had to be
in it's special spot or he would just freak out until he found it and put
it back.  Well... it was fun to watch him freak, so I used to hide the toy
from him and in doing so, I discovered that every time his toy was missing
he would look in every single place I had ever hidden it... in the order
in which I had hid it.  I actually took to writing down where I left his
toy hidden, because I couldn't remember where I left it and when I left
in there.  (In relation to where I had left it the previous times)  He
was never wrong, though.  He would check every place I had hidden the toy
previously and he checked every hiding place in order.  It was waaaaaay
bizarre!  I had about 15 or so hiding places before I stopped, due to
running outta places to hide it!  (I have only one room which the ferrets
can play in!)
 
Also, again with the bunny fur toy... I had a string tied to it and I used
to hang it over the back of the couch so it would dangle a ways off the
floor.  For a ferret, Chaos can jump very very high straight up.  (He can
get his head almost as high as the back of the couch... within an inch or
so)  Eventually, the make it more work for him to get his toy, I raised
it higher & higher up the back of the couch.  Finally it was high enough
that he couldn't quite reach it.  So he began going up the couch on the
front side (where the seats are) and jumping on the back of the couch to
grab his toy.  To make it more challenging yet, I would wait for him to
get just about there, then lower the toy back down to near floor level.
At first all he did was go back & forth from floor to back of couch.
Evenutally, he realized I guess that he wasn't going to be able to get
the toy that way.
 
So, he started leaning over the edge of the back of the couch trying to
reach it.  (He leaned so far once I had to catch him to keep him from
falling!)  When he still couldn't reach it that way?  He grabbed the
string with his teeth and pulled the toy up.  Then he would try to grab
it, only to have it fall before he could get ahold of it.  He rectified
that situation the next time by pulling the string up with his teeth,
then standing on it with his front paws to hold it... then he'd reach
down and pull it up a little closer & step on the string again, until he
had the toy close enough to grab ahold!  I thought that was downright
clever of him!
 
As far as the rest of Chaos' personality?  He is an odd ball.  He acts
silly sometimes.  He war dances by swinging his head back & forth.  His
feet don't move.  (Sometimes he swings his head so hard he falls over!)
He's also incredibly clumsy.  If someone's going to fall from somewhere,
it will be him.  When he was a baby, he didn't understand when to stop
playing sometimes.  (with the othe 2 who were also babies at the time)
He is fine now... with my new babies, he doesn't even bite them when he
plays... he uses the top of his head to push them over and hold them
down, the grabs them with his front paws.  He never bites babies, even
when they bite him.
 
He is extremely people orientated, too.  He has to be under foot all the
time.  He'll even sleep under my computer chair.  He is the only one of
my 6 ferrets that will actively seek out interaction with me.  (By pawing
my legs or just sitting next to me staring at me!)
 
My other deaf ferret, Seamus, isn't completely deaf.  He's quite hard of
hearing, but he does hear some things.  It's very hard to tell exactly
how much he hears, though, so I'm not sure how deaf he actually is and
how much he just choose to ignore me! :)  He seems to be quite normal.
He loves the other ferrets & toys, loves to be held and has no problem
being large groups of strange ferrets or strange people.  He is the most
laid back ferret I have ever met, I think.  Even though he is not quite
six months old, he is a totally calm lap ferret and has been since I
brought him home.  I took him when he was about 12 weeks old to my sis's
daycare and he sat quietly and still on my lap for over 2 hrs, being
petted nearly constantly by young children.  He just loved it.  (The only
time he was squirmy was when he had to go potty... which would make me
squirmy, too, quite frankly!  lol!)  He's just... very unique like that,
I guess!
 
Thanks for posing an interesting question!  The results I have read so far
have been quite interesting!
 
TS & The War Weasels!
Chaos, Nemesis, Goblin, Dante, Seamus & Chancey!
[Posted in FML issue 3795]