Taking Notes
An opportunist is someone or something that seeks out new environments and situations in case there’s a good chance of something good happening. Ferrets are opportunists, which means they constantly have their eyes and (espicially) their ears open. They take notes and store the info in their small brains for later use.
The main way I’ve observed my ferrets making use of their stored data is in remembering sounds. The sound of the spoon scraping against the bowl is the sound of an upcoming snack of leftovers. The sound of the closet door opening is possibility of entering the forbidden area. The sound of the fridge opening is yet another chance to explore this mysterious place with so many wonderful smells.
What makes your pet ferret such a great pet is his attunement to your activities. Ferrets will adjust their sleeping patterns so they’re awake when you are. They’ll greet you every morning if they’ve observed that good treats are given out first thing of the day. They’ll watch you intently to get your attention if the food bowl is low, or if the water needs changing. Or sometimes they’re watching you for signs of a good play session about to begin.
This is bun, watching me. He’s taking notes inside his head and will later use it against me!
Hippie Emerging from a Couch Nap
If you love your couch, you will need a Couch Protection Plan. The couch is your pet ferret’s perfect environment:
- dark
- soft
- full of hidden corners
- comes with digging areas
To your ferret, the couch represents one humongous extended burrow, into which he can dig, tunnel, and excavate. Oh yes, he will excavate your sofa. First he’ll break through the fabric layer covering the bottom of your sofa. Then he or she will explore upwards into the innards of the sofa. Any padding will be dug out and end up on your rug or just laying underneath your couch.
Your pet ferret will squeeze between any wooden frame structure, in search of napping spots. They may get stuck and you will have to turn your sofa upside down and coax your weasel out. He may not want to come out, or he may be stuck. It’s hard to tell. And you can’t just grab his head and pull, of course.
Eventually, the ferret will break through and surface between the sofa cushions, when you are least expecting it. Plan for a ferret head popping up next to you as you watch TV, to your dismay as you realize where he’s come from. Now your couch has been ferretized. It is no longer your couch. It belongs to your ferret, and he will make it his home.
This is Hippy, emerging after a long couch nap. Not yet fully awake, he’s still in a half dream state, in part made possible by the dark innards of the couch environment.
Hippie has come such a long way. He’s had quite a few roles since entering our household: from stressed out shelter ferret to warrior fighter and now communicator with humans. He’s learned that good things come from humans, namely food. Specifically: CHEESE. When he first arrived, we noticed that he didn’t like the same treats our other ferrets craved: raisins. He just wouldn’t eat anything but his kitten chow and the Marshall ferret food.
But he was very persistent about getting into the fridge. Come to find out, he was after our cheese supply. The cheaper the cheese, the better. His favorite is American singles. A few weeks after that, he learned that begging will bring him cheese. Yes, it’s our fault we have begging ferrets, just can’t help it.
Now Hippie keeps tabs on our every move, knowing just when to come bounding into the kitchen after us. He knows the sound of the fridge door opening, just as Bun and Pig know the sound of the spoon against a bowl when we’re eating cereal (soup is such a disapointment!).
Because Hippie is larger than life in so many ways, (just look at him), he does everything to the max, including begging. We call this the “Strong Beg”. It’s so intense you can feel his beady eyes boring a hole right through you. He’s trying to look you directly in the eye and comminucate: Cheese Please!
The Strong Beg
Cheese Please!
Macchi's Strong Beg
Bun's Beg Isn't Very Strong
This is Hippy, who is fat and quite clumsy. He’s our shelter ferret, which means we rescued him from our local SPCA. He’d been left there on the street in front of the shelter in the night, in a cage with another ferret.
Anyway, he’s so clumsy sometimes it’s hard to believe he can get anything done in his life. When he runs, his feet push out sidewards with every step. If you watch him from behind, it looks like he’s roller blading, but in fast forward.
I placed him on the windowsill for some fresh whiffs and look what happened.
Ferrets are forever using their noses to guide them through the world. If a window is opened, it’s at least an hour’s worth of exciting new things to whiff. Hippy got a leg up onto the sill and he’s catching some whiffs right now.
In fact, ferrets have a very keen sense of smell, and they use it a lot to seek out fresh water. I’ve seen Pig, one of our ferrets, a girl, run across the room and stop in her tracks, smelling something. It’s just a bowl of fresh water I’d put down earlier. They can smell fresh water vs. old water!
Closeup of Bun
This is Bun, who’s about a year old. Bun doesn’t live in a cage and he lives with two other ferrets who also roam free inside our apartment. Point is, he’s very active, curious, and hardly ever sits still, and he’s very in tune with every single movement I and my boyfriend make. Any new sound, and he’s there to investigate. I crouch down to his level (e.g. for this picture), and he trots over to see what I’m up to.
To ferrets, small mechanical noises represent awesome potential for discovery and mischief. The inner workings of my Canon Rebel Xsi produce tiny sounds that will draw a ferret away from whatever he or she is doing, finding the potential for discovery simply irresistible.
That’s what Bun is doing. He was actually very involved in trying to catch wooden beads that were swinging at the end of the cord to the venetian blinds. But the camera sounds made him drop everything and rush over, coming up to the point where my camera had trouble focusing on everything.
And that is why it’s very hard to capture a ferret on camera and have the picture come out clear and sharp. And using the flash, well let’s just say using the flash in a dark ferret corner means you will have pictures of what look like opossums.