My first Christmas with a ferret was an enlightening experience to say the least. After 6 years I've figured out a lot of the tricks, however something new seems to happen every year. One night our tree was blinking quite prettily. I left the room, and when I came back, the lights were no longer blinking. Thinking a bulb had burned out, I started checking all the light bulbs. I came to one socket, and there was no light bulb. Scratching my head, I wondered how it could have fallen out. I replaced the light, and blink away they went. As I sat down, I see our ferret standing on the back of a chair near the tree, opening her mouth to bite a light. I yelled NO!, but of course, we aren't sure what no means to a ferret. I had to chase a ferret down the hall with a xmas light in her mouth. I think I saw someone else post this, but it seems that if the lights are on and blinking, they are fair game, but turn them off, and they get ignored. I now string everything above ferret reach (so far she hasnt tried climbing the tree), and put only ferret safe items on the lower branches. Christmas presents are always a challenge too. We have a tree skirt shark every year around Christmas. Any presents on top of the skirt seem to fall over. Our ferret also doesn't understand that you have to wait to Christmas to unwrap presents, AND that some presents are not hers! Scratching feet under the covers. We also have a foot scratcher under the covers. It must be some ferret ritual, but I've found that our ferret usually just wants me to move my feet so she can sleep on the warm spot my feet made, or she wants me to get up in the middle of the night to get her a drink of water from the faucet. Tools It always amazed me watching our ferret get on the kitchen counters. She learned that by opening the doors of the cabinets in the corner, and letting them bang together back to back, that she could then use the open doors to climb onto the kitchen counter. I don't think I would have thought of that if I were her size! It's almost scary watching them figure out what to use around them to get where they aren't supposed to be. I still think ferrets are really smarter than us humans, they sure are good people manipulators! Waiting in CA for fuzzy friends to become legal and the fuzzy friend who unwraps everyones Christmas presents [CK] [Posted in FML issue 1400]