Hi all. I just wanted to share a new toy that our newest ferret discovered. Boing, the new baby, managed to temporarily escape the ferret compound. The compound is our living room with the door ways blocked off with (human) baby door blockers. Anyways, when we got home we found out that someone had been messing around in the kitchen. Besides chasing the onions around the floor, and the broom being dragged under the fridge, she had found a golf ball. The previous tenant must have lost it under the fridge. So, after making sure all beasties were accounted for, we cleaned up the mess, washed up the golf ball, and dropped the ball into the living room. That was when we discovered this strange behavior. All the ferrets, without exception, love to place with it. They never seemed much interested in any other balls, but they love to chase this one around with their noses pushing it across the wood floor. Or they place it behind their front legs and scoot backwards with it. Boing had previously done this scooting action with other small objects like keys, but now all of them do it with the golf ball. Sometimes they all want to do it at once and a sort of 'ferret soccer game' ensues. Does anyone know of any instinctual reason they might do this? We think it might have something to do with moving eggs around. Regardless, we think it cute but annoying when they do it in the middle of the night. Maybe someone else has had similar experiences, or would like to try this out at home. Darel & Susan ferret in order of appearance: Roo, Sparky, and Boing. -- ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Darel Benysh Industrial Engineering [log in to unmask] Purdue University [log in to unmask] West Lafayette, IN, USA (for cute quote type '/usr/games/fortune') ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ [Posted in FML issue 0599]