Cher asked, rather incredulously, if ferrets really can be kinda dumb. Dani responded: >If he could have talked, he would have said "Duh." This made me grin. Noodle is obviously mentally challenged, and if he could talk, he would mostly say "Huh?" or "I don't get it!" He does have a couple different facial expressions - mainly startled and confused - but in fairness I must say that he's also got a knack for trouble. Unable though he is to figure out the fact that when I step over the ferret gate it means there's *gasp* another room on the other side, if there's something to be gotten into and knocked over, he'll do it. If you levitated a trash can in the middle of the room, 5 ft off the floor with nothing within reach for another 5 feet all the way around, you'd find him inside within 3 minutes. My favorite example to this day: when we first gave him dryer hose, he'd run in and poke his head out the other side when playing in order to attack other ferrets. However, ALL my other ferrets, being, well, smarter, would run around to the tail end of the hose, run in behind him, and attack his butt. Standard ferret procedure. Noodle would SHOOT out his end, whip around and dive back in at the offending attacker, who would then back out, run around to the other side of the hose, and attack him in the butt all over again. It took him WEEKS to figure out how they were doing that!! When he finally did figure it out, it was a screamer to watch: he'd dive in, attack from one end, get attacked on his butt, then pop out and stare at the other end of the hose in confusion. Slowly, he'd trot down to the far end, then he'd lower his head and peek in. By this time, of course, the attacking other ferret had turned around in the hose and was already waiting for him at that end. He'd trot back and forth, slowly and unsurely, until he gave up trying to figure out why the same attacking ferret was always at both ends of the hose and left to play elsewhere. Just so you don't stop giggling too much - this was two or so years ago. He STILL has to remind himself 'how it works' when he plays with Easel in the dryer hose. :) Friday (my ferret with advanced lympho) is doing well. We have two Midwest cages in the living room where those three play, and Friday - despite her inability to get down without hurting herself - insists on climbing to the top of Potpie's cage every time she's out. I peek into their room every so often and see this little white face peeking back at eye level, waiting to be set back down so she can climb back up again. All of my ferrets are officially now nicknamed 'Dumbbutt.' Melissa ___ Melissa Litwicki __ [log in to unmask] ___ By the whole newsgroup devoted tennis showing it after scarfing fork and laughters [Posted in FML issue 2047]