Anne wrote:
>These are ferrets, right?  Small furry animals with a brain the size of
>a walnut?  No opposable thumbs?
 
Yep, that's them!!  Sharp as tacks.  Brain power that ranks with the
lower primates.  Mother nature's little problem solvers.  Yep, that them,
the little stinkers.  I will never forget the first ferret I ever owned.
Cinder was a great problem solver.  I have a work table that he was
always trying to get on.  I had to move my chair away from the table so
he couldn't climb on it and then to the table.  I thought that was the
end of it.  HA!!!
 
I would catch him staring up at the table.  You could just see those
little gears turning as he studied the problem.
 
Do you know about the test that scientists did by hanging a banana out
of reach of a chimp and then left two boxes on the floor to see what
he would do with them?  If you do, then you know the chimp studied the
problem and then stacked the boxes to get to the banana.  So what does
this have to do with ferrets???
 
Simple, they're little problem solvers!!  Cinder loved to play in boxes
and I used to turn them upside down for him and cut holes in the sides
for him to crawl in and out of.  I heard him on the table and couldn't
figure out how in the world he got up there.  I did note the boxes near
by and scooted them back out into the room.  Didn't even occur to me what
had just happened!! lol  Sometimes the hooman is the one that's slow on
the up take!  Not two minutes later I heard a box being scooted across
the floor and peeked around the corner to see what was going on.  There
was Cinder pushing the taller box across the floor to just under the edge
of the table and then trying to climb up on the box.  He couldn't quite
make it so he went for the smaller box.  Got that one pushed near the
taller one and just hopped up on the smaller, jumped to the taller box
and up onto my table.  Ta da!!  I was absolutely amazed!!  I couldn't
believe it.  From that point on I made sure the boxes were much smaller
and not so tall.  Later I got a copy of "Ferrets For Dummies".  She does
cover the issue of intelligence in her book.  After I read the book, life
was easier, well, relatively speaking that is.  We are talking ferrets
here.
 
End of story?  Not by a long shot!!  lol I now have a little girl who has
figured out all kinds of different ways to get up on my work table.  I
just hope she doesn't teach my other fuzzbutts how to get up there!  lol
You just have to learn how to live one step ahead of them at all times
and when to make compromises with them.  And NEVER, EVER, underestimate
them!
 
Hug and Dooks,
Cindy and the gang at
Hiland Ferrets
[Posted in FML issue 5149]