Its been a while since I've had the time to post anything.  I have a couple
of recent behavior examples that indicate a higher intelligence at work!
 
"Baby" was running around in her usual mad fashion during "out time" when
she started to back into the 45 degree corner beside the cabinet.  My wife
spotted this immediately and shouted "Baby, no".  The response was
significant.  The culprit looked up and across the room, left the corner
without making a deposit, and immediately backed into the other 45 degree
corner on the opposite side of the cabinet.  My wife very loudly shouted
"No!" and made movement to get up from her chair.  Baby immediately left
that corner, no deposit, scuttled over to the cage, climbed in the litter
box and then returned to playing with the rest of them.  Three minutes
later she was missing from view and we found her making a deposit behind
the sofa!
 
Every morning I let all four out for morning excercise while I have
breakfast.  (No longer five - we lost Lester to post operative complications
following an adrenal tumor that grew through the vena cava.) Anyway,
everybody will play happily and totally ignore things like TV Guides,
phones, TV remotes, etc.  They run and they climb over them but never seem
to take any of these things.  However, should you leave the room to do
something that ties you up for more than three minutes all hell seems to
break loose.  You return to shredded magazines and stolen telephones and
remotes.  I can go into another room to get get something and return quickly
and they are all still where I left them.  However, if I go to my study and
turn on the computer to prepare for work (it takes a few minutes to boot)
they seem to know I'm gone for long enough that they can wreak havoc.  I
have even noticed that I can replace all the stolen and shredded items and
they will not attempt to regain posession as long as I'm in the room.
Leave the room and they are at it again!
 
A side note on wet ferrets, and I'm certainly not advocating the kind of
behavior's recently reported.  We have a closed deck that they play on in
the snow.  Recently we opened the back door when it was raining.  Two of
them seemed to love it although they didn't stay out long once they
realized they were soaked.  (We had to dry them off with a towel.) However,
the idea of raindrops bouncing off the deck had Tyranoweasel going crazy
for five minutes.
[Posted in FML issue 2456]