Greetings!  I am thrilled to find you.  I've just finished reading a week's
worth of digests and can't wait to get more.  I'm one of three humans help
captive to the charms of two little sprites, Eloise (aka Weasie or Elly
Weasel -- named after the bad little girl who lived at the Plaza) and Sabine
(aka Beanie or The Bean).  Together they are sometimes knows as Beanie and
Weasel, but most often as The Girls.
 
Because Eloise comforted herself at naptime by sucking Sabine's ear, and
because Eloise appears to be four times as bright as Sabine, my daughter and
I developed the theory that Eloise stole Beanie's brain by sucking it
through her ear.  My daughter sticks to this theory, and it does explain a
lot, but I have observed unmistakable signs that The Bean is more
single-minded than absent-minded.  She certainly knows how to get everything
she wants, and how to terrorize the two cats besides.  Her tactic is go for
the hind legs and show no mercy until the cats head for high ground.  Eloise
tries to engage her favorite cat in play by leaping on his back and biting
his ears.  Poor Kitty!  He would love to play with her, but she nips so hard
he cries and gives up.
 
Gary: I was touched by your tribute to the healing power of ferrets.  We
bought ours a month after I was laid off and six months before I lapsed into
clinical depression.  But no matter how bleak things looked, The Girls made
me laugh and lightened my days.  I don't know what that time would have been
like without them.  How dark can a world be in which ferret girls think they
can terrify you by dooking themselves backwards until they fall off the bed?
 
Dave: Both Eloise and Sabine answer to their names (unless they're in the
same room with me and already know I've put the raisins away).  They come
when they are called just in case there are treats to be had.  I love to
hear The Bean gallumph down the hall and watch her descend the stairs like a
fat slinky.  They also know the words *raisin* and *nummies* (the name we
gave linotone).  My brother-in-law laughed at me and said they just knew my
tone of voice, but my husband and I both saw them rear up in mid-sniff when
I mentioned raisins in the middle of a sentence which I was not expecting
them to listen to.
 
They definately know their own names and do not answer to the other's name.
I trained them like I would a parakeet.  I said their name over and over and
over every time I held them or gave them treats or whatever for the first
month or so we had them.  The same with naming the raisins and nummies
whenever I gave them to them.  Now I repeat the names regularly, but not
constantly.
 
A Question: I give The Girls Iams kitten food, but I hear you all discussing
food I have never heard of.  Advice?  Recommendations?  They are 1 year and
7 months old, if that makes a difference.
 
Pleased to meet you all.  Judith
[Posted in FML issue 1476]