Hi all-- LOL Lori in Japan! My boyfriend thought I was nuts when I made *him* feel the penis bone last week too! Ahh, ferret people . . . what's there to be done? Mo' Bob--glad you're feeling okay! Keep up the glass collection! LOL. Well, not *really* that funny, in light of how terrifying it must have been to be awakened in such a cruel, heartless manner. I was *awake* for my Dec car accident and *still* almost wet myself. People have been talking about ferrets running to the bathroom when they hear the shower . . . My boys do something similar. They have run of the living room where we spend the most time, and we have hook locks on the bedroom doors. Well . . . Pepper and Mort KNOW the sound of those hooks un-hooking--a jingly sound, and they come RUNNING. And always to the correct door. I thought for awhile that Pepper was deaf, but he was just ignoring me, because not only does he run for the (usually) closed doors, but he comes to me when I call his name, too! I think he didn't come for a long time because I got him "second hand" and changed his name so he was a bit confused for a few weeks. Part of the thing with the hook locks is that they have been allowed to play in those rooms. But not often. I figure it this way: In the living room they have an 80% litter box hit rate. The two bedrooms are connected via the closet between them, so that's . . . 12 more corners to poop in. NO WAY! Too darn many, I think. It's not playing in those rooms that gives me a twinge, it's the thought of them curling up in the sleeping bags in the closet and later heading for the first corner they see, and me not finding the piles for A LONG TIME. Like when we finally move out and want our deposit money back! So anyway, whenever we can't find the boys, we just jingle the hook locks and they come running, or stumbling as the case may be if they've been asleep inside the couch! One more silly: I brought Mort with me to the Spur station at the corner the other night because he wouldn't let me leave w/o him. A guy who works there has female ferrets at home and was holding Mort while I wrote out a check. And the guy said, "Wow, is he ever heavy! I can't believe how heavy he is. I thought females were bigger than males." I stared at him, speechless for a few minutes, not because he was misinformed, but because Mort is my SKINNY-BUTT--Pepper outweighs him by a couple of pounds, at least. Now I can hardly wait for Pepper to be awake at an oppotune moment so I can bring HIM to the store and show off how huge he is! <grin> --Sheri and SO Dave --Pepper (Mama's fat boy, formerly known as 'Whitey') "C'mon mom, I want to go in the bedroom and wake up Daddy--he's sleeping much too peacefully!" --Mort (Mama's skinny-butt, formerly known as 'no name male MF fert') "Hey mom, did you notice that I've got impure genes? Yup, got a little bit-o flying squirrel blood in me viens--watch! Betcha I can get 4 feet of air-time if I spread all my legs out at just the right moment! Ha-Ha-Ha, no coffee table is safe in THIS room!" [Posted in FML issue 1858]