Hi again!
 
Once you get me started I just can't seem to stop!  Anyway I had been
reading over some of my last postings and felt that they were way too
serious, so for a change I'm going to pass on a couple of my funny stories.
 
A few years back a ferret named Tasha came to make our present business a
total of four.  She was spayed and descented and just past a year old.
After insinuating herself in the group she voted herself boss to the 2 and
3 year old males and that was that.  On her first group visit to the vet
she quickly figured out where she was and took action to make sure none of
"her" boys got handled by the stranger.  I placed their carrier on the
table and proceeded to open the door.  There Tasha stood in front of the
three males in very protective stance.  The vet reached in and grabbed one
of the males and before he barely had him on the table, Tasha came right
out and dragged him back in, hissing all the while.  This was quite the
sight to see considering the boys were all at least one and one-half to
twice her size.  But they let her drag them about.  Every time his hand
went into the carrier the hissing would start again.  This happened again
and again with each of the males.  The only way the vet could examine them
was for me to hold her while he looked at the rest.  She hissed at her
confinement as if to tell me she was only doing her job.  Now although she
was a "rescue" and spayed I was so amazed at her motherly instinct.  And
although the vet had quite the time seeing to them all, he laughed with
amazement and amusement.
 
Tasha went on to great fame (in my household anyway) at her ability to
reason and deduce the possiblities of any given situation.  My all time
favourite story begins with all of the boys, Vincent, Hobbes and Max,
getting their own room in the house.  Tasha quickly learned everything about
it including its contents and barriers.  We keep a wooden board that is
about thigh high in front of the doorway with a "window" cut in and covered
over in chicken wire so they can see what is going on, on the other side of
their world.  The board was just high enough that none of them could leap
out when we were not there.  Well after the first few times that Tasha was
found out of the room I just could not figure out how she did it.  So after
weeks of patience (she knew I was watching) I finally saw how this little
Houdini did it.  I would often hear stuff being pushed and dragged across
the floor but every time I would look in to see what was going on, Tasha
would be standing there looking up at me so innocently as if to say, "Dum de
dum, can I help you?  What?  Me doing anything?  Perposterous!" Finally I
managed to stand still and quiet enough for her to resume her construction
of sheer beauty and talent.  One by one she would drag various boxes and
rolls to the board and stack them high enough that she just had to climb up
and over she'd go!  It wouldn't matter what I put into the room or what I
took out ... everything she saw had possibilty.  The funny part about this
was that the boys would all watch her build, watch her climb over, and then
stand there looking things over going, "How the heck did she do that?"  They
would end up knocking it down, and until her passing, and theirs, they never
did figure it out!  (My apologies to the male FMLer's - but the story is
true!)
 
Betty - nanook of the north
[Posted in FML issue 2338]