Dear Ferret Folks- The root of the word 'science' comes from the greek, and means 'to see'. In my house, science is all too often performed by marauding WEASELS, and it means 'to tip over'. You know those cups of water, soda, and I guess in some households, milk, that get left by the bed overnight? In my house we call those 'science projects' because if they are left too long, interesting microorganisms will grow in them. Yeasts, fungi, mold, and other less pleasant life forms that may or may not be fragrant will appear all on their own inside of those cups. We try to make sure that they don't accumulate, but we are not perfect. Some of you out there, and you KNOW who you are, have similar things on your night stands. (According to a recent post, some of you even have weasels INSIDE your night stands!) Enter the ferret. The common ferret is irresistably drawn to liquids of almost any form, however, the more forbidden, the deeper the attraction is. Even water is irresistable if it is found to exist outside of the cage, in a form that it is generally not presented in. A bowl of lukewarm water left on the kitchen floor is 20.08 times more attractive than fresh, cold water left inside the cage. I don't need to understand why, it is enough to know that this is a fact. I will leave math to the experts. I accept the conclusion. The ferret enters the bedroom. This is not my favourite place for a ferret to be, they have their OWN bedroom for heavens sake, and I don't go around trashing IT on a whim. I never sleep in their laundry or bedding, a courtesy that they do not extend to me. The ferret climbs into the bed. I never climb into their hammock, please note, yet they do crawl into my bed. Not content with that violation of personal space, they swarm all over my night stand and the table across from my bed, just to see if there is anything to despoil. All to often there is, and it comes is a 16 ounce cup. But it doesn't stay there for long, oh, heavans, no! It is first cautiously sampled by tongue and snout, then summarily dumped out onto tabletops, bedding, pillows, nightclothes, the carpet, library books, whatever. So long as there is damage. The little scientists do not appear to take notes, perhaps you don't need to when you perform the same experiment over and over and over and over again, as the months pass into years. I'm imagining their little conversations about their experiments. "You see, Switch, you just need to give the plastic cup balanced on the library book a little shove until {GP>GT}, (gravitational pull exceeds gravitational tension) and viola! One hell of a wet mess! You try it now!" Nasty little poindexters, both of them. Alexandra in Massachusetts, wiping up The Husband: "Maybe if you didn't leave thses things next to the bed.." Alexandra, Switch the Kit, Sabrina the Blind Bat Biter, All Three;"SHUT UP!" [Posted in FML issue 3783]