This morning I let our crew of six out in the kitchen while I drank a cup
of coffee and watched the morning news in the den.  A strange sound finally
penetrated my brain, probably as the coffee slowly awakened a few brain
cells.  It was a periodic scraping sound coming from the kitchen.  I went
out there and peered around the corner.  Two of the ferrets were hard at
work pulling and pushing a pet carrier across the floor toward the kitchen
table and chairs.  The carrier kept getting hung up on the edge of the
carpet, however.
 
As I watched, one quit the tugging, ran over to the chair, and put his
front paws on the chair seat, and looked up to the table top.  It looked
like he was making sure that if they got the carrier over to the chair,
they could use that to get to the chair and from there get to the top of
the table.  After the check, he ran over to the carrier and started
tugging again.
 
They weren't making any progress scooting the carrier over the edge of the
rug, so I quit watching and left for work figuring that at least it would
keep them busy trying.
 
I had been at work for about 30 minutes when the phone rang.  Joan, my
wife, called to say that when she got up she found that the ferrets had
gotten up on the table and dumped everything onto the floor.  Yep, the
carrier was sitting right beside the chair.  I wonder if the two had
managed to solve the rug problem or recruited some of the others to help.
 
I think we should make ferrets honorary engineers.  They sure do have the
knack for it.
[Posted in FML issue 3141]