When Curtis first arrived in our home, he and Dodge quickly settled on a heirarchy of dominance. Baby Curt spent two days wrapped up by Dodge in a bear-hug, effectively immobilized under five pounds of well-utilized ferret chow. Curt never had a chance. The bear-hug tactic has worked well for Dodge in subsequent territorial expansion disputes. ("I have visited this hallway before, therefore it is MINE!") Non-violent, yet effective. Curtis is getting bigger, though. He still doesn't have the mass to flatten out Dodge, but it occurs to him that someone ought to show him a bit of respect. Someone should be reporting to HIM... ...Yesterday, I think he thought he had the solution. I was reading in the livingroom, cats quietly sleeping around me, and ferrets cruising the carpet...when I heard "mmmrff". (Background: "Mmmrff" is a sound particular to Mad, the siamese. Mad is a wonder of modern engineering that converts from a 36" tubular cat into a 7" diameter cat ball. Sid, the balinese, on the other hand, is an equally long cat that converts to nothing more than a 36" long sprawly cat lying on its back. Sid needs space. Often Sid will attempt to lie in a spot occupied by a 7" cat ball. Since lying on a ball of cat is not comfortable, Sid will simply attempt to pick up and drag the ball off of whatever it is sleeping on. When this happens, Mad goes "mmmrff", I yell at Sid, Sid stops annoying Mad, and comes over to purr and thrust his ears in my mouth in a gleeful fit of head-butting.) So, at the "mmmrff" prompt, I yelled "SID!"...and Sid yowled back, from the top of the cat tree. Whaaa...huh? I had to look up from my book. Mad was indeed being molested. Curtis had climbed on Mad's back, and without biting, was desperately trying to grip him in bear-hug fashion. It was evident that he was suffering from a shortage of arms. His stubby little limbs were straining, and he had a dire look on his face: Curtis: "I...mmmmphh...just...want...mmmph...to...prove...MMMMPH...a...point." Mad: "???????????????????????????????" Needless to say, Mad was deeply confused. He kept slllooowwly turning around, trying to see what the ferret was doing. Carefully, he got up, slowly twisting and stretching until Curtis slid off into an impotent pile in between the cushions. Mad then curled back up and went to sleep. I think Curtis really thought he had something brilliant going there for a minute: Mad plays contact sports with Curt all the time. Curtis may think of Mad as an Honourary Ferret--but the honours don't go so far as to have Mad outrank him. Maybe what Curtis *really* needs is another ferret... Nic: "NNNOOOOOOOOO!!!" (and Lynn: "Maybe...") --L. [Posted in FML issue 1535] [Posted in FML issue 1535]