Hooper did the FUNNIEST thing yesterday when I came back to my apartment Christmas Night. Hooper is my new baby, a fat black sable. He's not an "unhealthy" fat... he's big-boned. Honest. He's easily the most active of my five. Solid muscle. He's just massive. I've had him about six months. If I'm going to be away for a night, I leave my critters out. My house is ferret proofed, I feel bad leaving them in the cage for more than 8 hours, so we all feel better about it. I set up my Christmas tree about a month ago, right after Thanksgiving. They showed interest in the red ball ornaments, but Mom (she thought) outferreted them and put them up out of reach. She thought. Since they hadn't shown interest in the tree in a good solid month, I thought that the tree would be well, safe from ferrety attacks. I came home to a good fifteen of my red ornament balls on the floor all over my apartment. I followed the trail of them, picking them up as I went. I was puzzled as to how they got them. Hehehe. It would be a couple of hours after I got home before I learned how that happened. Noone bothered to climb the tree. Hooper would stand up on his hind legs, and shake the bottom branches until an ornament dropped off the higher ones. This only worked on the ball ornaments, seeing the way they were on the tree~they would bounce up and come off the hooks as he shook the tree. When I saw him doing that I didn't even have the heart to yell at him. I laughed until I had tears streaming down my face and I had to catch my breath! So, I guess the moral of the story is: 1) if you think you can outferret a ferret, you're completely wrong. 2) when all else fails, SHAKE IT TILL IT COMES DOWN! Sue and the fab five Dante, Toby, Templeton, Nala and Hooper p.s. I saw someone else note that their liscense plate said "FURTZ".... Mine says FERRETY! [Posted in FML issue 4374]