Georgia Wood finally told me the story behind the octupus posts.  I kept
after her asking if she reaaaaally had ever given her ferrets octupus.
This was her reply, and she gave me permission to post this:
 
Georgia writes:
The octopus thing was a scream.  Judith White was here visiting, and we
sent Percy for Chinese food.  He went to a new place and encountered a
counterman who basically didn't speak English.  Actually it's a Tei
resturant, not Chinese.  The menu items were strange to Percy and with
the lack of communication he got frantic and just pointed to a number of
things.  When I opened the cartons, in one were these strange things.  I
kinda screamed "Percy, there SOMETHING in our food, what are these THINGS,
are they BUGS, oh my God, they are octopuses, there are WHOLE baby
octopuses in our FOOD, get them OUT of here, you expect me to EAT food that
has OCTOPUSSES in it"?  They averaged 1 1/4 inches across, and were spread
out flat, like starfish.  So I fished them all out and put them in a bowl,
except for 1 that Percy said he'd try.  I can't remember if Judith tried
one, but I did not.  I said the ferrets could have my share.  After lunch
I took the bowl to the ferret room and some of them leaped on the octopus,
while others hurridly backed away.  Muffet and Neugi were sharing quarters
with Gator, Hawk and Houdini.  Muffet took an octopus and ran to a corner
with it.  One of the visitors ran up to her and she did the funniest thing.
She dropped the octopus, grabbed Hawk or Gator by the scruff and marched
him across the room.  He was peddling as fast as his little baby legs could
go.  When she got him far enough away she SPAT him out and marched back to
her octopus.  I have only 1 picture of it, as she and the baby came out
from behind a table leg.  She had the most noticible 'I will NOT be putting
up with this nonsense' air about her.  Hawk and Gator were only about 8
weeks old.
 
Wolfy
Please visit:
http://www.geocities.com/wolfysluv/
for information on ferret deafness:
http://www.geocities.com/wolfysluv
[Posted in FML issue 3318]