Among the words our ferrets know are their names, "Nummy Crunchies", "kissie-kissie", "more", "Wa-Wa", some body parts. We keep to simple sentence structure though after a while they understand one conditional structure: first- then. It is extremely useful when given some nasty tasting meds though for the worst it doesn't work. Mornie is turning into someone who loved to warm cold areas with a person's breath and occasionally in a person's mouth so it good to differentiate between hands and feet, and they all know "belly" "head" and more. "Bump-bump" means two things. It means nose and it means bumping with the nose. Today Hubble did something that I hope was not a one time accident. I asked for bump-bump but he was very busy busy playing so from across the room he stopped, looked at me and clearly said, "ump,ump". Steve and I about fell off our chairs! In about twenty five years with ferrets we have had only one who tried out her own word pronounciation and who tried to copy ours. That was Haleakala (Hale, pronounced "Holly" for short) who was a breeder retired injured after a mounting male bit through one of her eyes. After that she usually would tolerate no ferret older than a kit. Hale was very much her Daddy's girl and she and Steve would cuddle for ages with him saying things to her and then pausing while she would chatter at him in reply. After a while she developed a few consistent words of her own. Now, remember that to Hale I had several uses. I was appreciated as a nurse and food giver, and adored for my belly button which belonged to no one but her, regularly grooming it. If Steve touched my navel she would go Martha Stewart in terms of cleanliness and clean it to the point where she would even do those little incisor groomings along the edge (ouch). For the most part, though, I was a rival for Steve so it will not surprise you that her distinct name for me sounded somewhat like a snort of disgust. Steve, in the meantime was a pushover and Hale loved milk so his name sounded very close to her word for milk "Mkkk" which she would demand (no asking or begging on Hale's part) by name. We hope that Hubble goes on from. "ump ump", that this was not a one time accident. It would be just so cool to have a talking ferret again! [Posted in FML issue 5082]