Warp was abused by males as a kit and forever was leery of males (with two exceptions) for her 8 years. I am not sure if that was still a memory or not. I CAN tell you that Warp has died over a month ago and several of the ferrets freak if we say her name and then search the house for her. Jumper died about a half year ago and we still had one or two respond when his name was said recently and go searching for him (One may have been copying.), associating him with his favorite ferret toys. A friend was away for at least a year and when he came back Meltie who had adored him knew him without any problems except that she at first glared at him for leaving but soon relented and resumed their own private games. In the wild polecats would HAVE to have long memories for some things, esp. seasonal ones needed annually or perhaps ones that mean survival in hard times like droughts which may be needed more than a year apart, to survive. They seem to sometimes forget tricks after several months of not doing them, but not always. Short term memory is affected by distraction in humans; if you distract someone enough before the memory can set into the long term memory then it goes away after a bit but things that aren't essential can be held there for a while. Long term memories are exactly that. They are processed differently from short term ones in humans. I can't recall details, but there is a lot written on this. Bill wrote: >[Moderator's note: I've traced some virus e-mail back to two people on >the FML. Neither of them believe their machines are infected. I should >have included something about killer ladybug eggs from mars that infect >us when eat pizza or something like that and it would be all over the >internet by now as if it were fact. But try to convince people to do >something reasonable like run a virus checking program? Nah... BIG] Glad that your traced it back and hope they do something! Those things appear in mails received here at a rate of as many as a half dozen a day recently. It could not have been an easy job given that they fake where they come from; I sure hope those people LISTEN and try to clean up. It's the only fair thing to do! [Not difficult sometimes with e-mail records, BIG] Love the lady bug thing, and you are completely RIGHT about how some would react! >> :-) seems like a lot of people are all for this "vacation" (the whole >>one day of it...) Here's a suggestion that I think/hope most FMLers >>would be OK with. Why not make one day a week be the "day off" so our >>hard working BIG can rest! >[Moderator's note: It would probably be wrong day each week! BIG] Bill, you MORE than deserve it! If you try it and anyone gripes nastily just form an "up-side-the-head" committee and we/they will handle the jerks! It used to be that the FML was the only reputable resource, but now the resources back each other up so you could safely take a day or maybe even sometimes two (?) a week, I think, knowing that folks have options: other lists, archives like http://listserv.cuny.edu/archives/ferret-search.html which have a wealth of info, websites by vets, etc. The FML is still the largest and the archives astounding, but others can back you up when you need that these days, so, please, be kind to yourself. You have way, way, way more than earned it. Steve and I hope that Wednesday will be a day for fun and relaxation for you! [Canceled for the time being. BIG] Oh, reminder: Smartgroups will be down on Thursday due to maintenance. Sukie http://fhl.sonic-weasel.org/ (Easily searched FHL archives) http://www.smartgroups.com/groups/ferrethealth (the FHL addy for several weeks now) http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Ferret-Health-list/files/ (Until FHL moderators finish going through and moving the rest of the last year and half's Files) http://geocities.com/sukieslist (which I badly need to update) [Posted in FML issue 3852]