Okay, I've heard a few interesting stories here, and the one about the
ferret dialing 911 brings back an interesting memory of what my girl Kobi
had done once.
 
One weekend, I left Kobi out for a while, when I went out shopping.  Kobi
spent a lot of time caged up, because of my grandmother, especially during
the week, when I was working 8 hours, sleeping 8 hours, and with other odds
and ends, didn't get more than 4-6 hours out a night...sometimes a bit more,
sometimes a bit less.  So I tried to make it up to her on weekends, by
letting her stay out a bit more, even when I wasn't around to supervize her
activities.  (My room is very large, more than enough play room for her, and
is well ferret proofed, though they just LOVE disproving that idea don't
they ;) So, I knew I'd be out shopping for maybe a hlaf hour, to an hour,
and decided not to put her back in the cage, but just let her have her
freedom while I was gone.
 
I did make one mistake. I left my phone on my little computer disk case,
on the floor.
 
Normally, Kobi just ignores my phone. However, I was out shopping, and my
best friend Robb called me up, wanting to get together. Well, the phone
rang, and it was such an intriguing noise, that Kobi just had to go
figure out what it was. My disk case was only 4 inches tall, and she
immediately figured out how to answer the phone. Well, that seemed to
stop the ringing, but, since she answered the phone, my friend Robb
started speaking...
   "Hello?"
Big pause.
   "Ed? Ed are you there?"
Another big pause.
   "Ed stop ****ing around...I can hear you messing around with the phone."
Another long pause.
   "Ed, cut the crap I can hear you breathing."
   "Oh just forget it if you are gonna be a jerk."
CLICK
DIALTONE!
Then after a big long pause, that annoying "You left the phone off the
hook dummy" noise.
 
How do I know this?  Well, it seems Kobi had also managed to hit the RECORD
button on the attached answering machine, so an hour later after I got home
I found my phone off the hook, the reciever halfway across the room, with no
dialtone, and a little message light for my answering machine blinking.
 
SHe had answered the phone, and each time there was noise at the other
end, she must have decided it was neat, and came to check it out, playing
with the reciever. It took a little while to convince my friend Robb I
WASN'T playing a bad prank on him, and that it WAS my ferret that had
answered the phone.
 
*************************************************************
 
Another odd tidbit that my Kobi used to do, which I attribute mostly to
having to spend a lot of time caged up, is that when she was being let
loose, and she got hungry, she would not eat inside her cage. She would
in fact go inside her cage, take ONE kibble in her mouth, carry it over
onto the little carpet next to my bed, and eat it there. Then she would
go back in, get ANOTHER kibble, come out and eat that one, on my carpet.
 
This is odd, only because she wouldn't eat it on the linoleum floor, nor
anywhere else in my room, just on this small strip of carpet next to my
bed, which was a good 8 feet from the cage. It was very amusing to watch,
but it was definitely BIZARRE!
 
Anyway, those are my two stories for now. I hope they've given you a
chuckle, especially for those that have recently lost a fuzzy, I hope
that this has triggered a good memory of your own ferret, to help keep
their memory fierce in your mind.
 
Good health to you all and your ferts.
 
Ed Greaves
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[Posted in FML issue 1524]