So, in my now years-long quest to turn Friday into a cuddly ferret, i've
done many things. I've picked her up and made her let me hold her, i've
petted / talked to / tickled / skritched / her while holding her, i've let
her climb all over me and played with her every day. She's still a bit
distant - no, she's downright weird. She'll get into 'pestering' moods
where she'll just walk right up to you and INSIST on biting you for five,
ten minutes. There is no way to stop this - scruffing, flicking, NO, bitter
apple, nothing. She just circles you and bites you wherever she wants, then
wanders away. Fortunately, this only happens once in a great while. Other
times, if you dont have food, she prefers playing by herself to interaction
with you, and often with other ferrets. Very much a loner.
But, i finally decided to get hard-core on Friday and transform her any way
i could.
Using the knowledge that she's a complete and total tramp for *any* sort of
treat, i combined another infrequent habit and her susceptibleness to treats
to make a very cute trick:
When picked up and held for a period of time, sometimes Friday would give
face kisses as a sort of "Okay, i've been nice, let me down now" message.
So, i gave her a treat after she licked my nose. And then the next time.
Now, she climbs up my shirt to lick my nose. I'm not sure if i should be
proud or ashamed. :)
Friday is SO desperate to get any sort of food treat that she'll learn a
trick after *ONE* repetition if she gets an award after doing the trick.
I kid you not; it is amazing, the strength of this girl's desire for
raisins/dogtreats/petromalt/etc. We taught her to fish for raisins in about
2 minutes. I taught her to climb my shirt to lick my nose in about 15
combined minutes. Maybe i should teach her to wash my car, too. :)
Melissa and the greedy wonder, Friday
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Melissa Litwicki "Is it ... atomic?"
[log in to unmask] "Yes! VERY atomic!"
[Posted in FML issue 1719]
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