This is going to be a long message - teach me to leave for a long weekend! I came home to 255 messages. Yikes! We went to my uncle's farm for the weekend. Bongo and Boomer pretty much took over his house. But the story is, he's got a blue heeler, Bonnie, that's a farm dog in every sense of the word. She lives to chase and work cattle, and when her partner, Liz, was alive, one of their favorite hobbies was picking fights with raccoons. So, one would think that Bonnie wouldn't be very receptive to ferrets in the house. HA! We were all in the living room watching TV, when Bonnie wandered into the room. She walked over to Boomer, bent over him, opened her mouth...at which point I got a LITTLE nervous, but her tail was wagging, so I just watched...and she picked him up in her mouth, carried him out to her blanket in the entry, and held him down with one paw, and lay down. She wanted him to sleep with her! True story, honest! And eventually, they did end up taking a nap together, when Boomer was darn good and ready. Bongo wasn't too sure about taking a nap with Bonnie, but she did ride on Bonnie's back when her feet got too cold playing outside. :) FERT DOGGIE DOOR: I love this whole idea! Our ferts would think they had gone condo if we did this. They'd wardance and dook for days. SHEDDING: I was relieved to hear that ferrets shed weirdly. (nice grammar) Boomer's summer coat fell out in about half an hour, and his winter coat grew in beautifully. Half of Bongo's summer coat fell out, and stayed that way for about two weeks. She looked like a guinea pig. Thankfully, her winter fur is growing in now, and she looks like her own species. TRICKS: Bongo is generally too proud to do tricks, but I did get her to stand up and shake for a treat. It was easy, since she would stand on her hind legs to try and see what I had anyway, and she'd brace herself on my hand if I held it out, so whenever she did it, I just said, "Shake", and voila, she does it even when we DON'T say shake. (she may be proud, but she begs shamelessly for treats) Boomer just learned to roll over. Again, it was easy - he learned in about three hours. (not three consecutive hours - NO ferret has an attention span that long!) I held a Mouser (his favorite treat) in front of him and brought my hand down to the floor until he was almost lying down, and then brought the treat around the side of his head, and then over the top of his head, so he had to roll over to get at it, saying "roll over" while he did it, and once he went all the way over, he got the treat. Now if we're holding something he wants (like spaghetti sauce) he'll scratch our legs and when he's got our attention, he'll roll over and then pop up for his treat. It's pretty sad when your pets start demanding treats from you. ("Give me 10 drops of Linatone, or your good sock gets it.") MO' BOB: First of all, I finally saw your web page, and loved it. I give it ten dooks. Second, I think you should let your daughter at the computer more often!! ;) MARSHALL FARMS: I've noticed that Marshall Farms has been getting bashed lately, and while I'm not defending them, I did want to say that both of our fuzzdorks came from MF, and they are extremely healthy and have great dispositions. Wherever they came from, I'm just thankful they're healthy and happy! Tanya, Bongo, and Boomer p.s. Just thought I'd add this - while I've been writing this, Bongo and Boomer have been caught stealing! Today is my birthday, and Dean, busy guy that he is, defrosted a Sara Lee chocolate silk pie for me. :) (he promised me a real one when he's got time.) Anyway, I just went for a bite, and MY PIE IS GONE!! Those two little boogers took it under the couch. AARGH - we have BEIGE carpet! Just for that, someone's going to have a bath... [Posted in FML issue 1752]