Precious things

Back when I was still in college I had a ferret named Natasha. Natasha liked to collect and hide things. It started off small, but grew into a big compulsion. Now when I was in school, I would go to classes, then to work for a while, then to study. If I got a chance for a nap at whatever time, I would take it. I first noticed Natasha collecting things when waking up from a nap. Now, not only did she collect things, but they had to be put into very specific places. One of the toys they had at the time was an Alf hand puppet I had gotten from Burger King. Remember Alf? He got a bad rep, but I always liked him. Anyhow, the ferrets lived in my bedroom in the apartment I was in. One of their favorite places to sleep was in the bottom drawer of the dresser I had. It was a good 8 inches off of the ground, but they figured out how to get into it. After a while I made some stairs so they could just climb in. These guys spent very little time in their house, I put them to bed at night when I slept so they wouldn't be running under the covers and chewing on my toes. Just for the record, Natasha's house mates were Mishka who was the first ferret I ever had, and Ivanhoe a ferret I got from a person who didn't want him anymore which was a shame because Ivanhoe was a really sweet boy. This person did the same thing a few years later with another sweet boy, Norman. I believe he has stopped trying to have ferrets which is a good thing. Anyhow, I digress.

So, I woke from my nap fortunately looking in the right direction to see Natasha dragging Alf accross the floor and up the little steps and trying to get him into the dresser. Now she couldn't get him in the way she was carrying him, which was by the leg and sort of dragging him beside her. She tried but she couldn't get him and herself over the rim of the drawer at the same time. She tried several times until she figured it out. She pulled him up that way as far as she could and then jumped into the drawer and pulled him the rest of the way in. I was spellbound watching her work this out. I had a genius for a ferret! She wanted him up there to sleep with. When I got up and looked next, she was curled up in there with Alf. A security puppet.

The next time I noticed her collecting habit, we had moved to a bigger place, same arrangement, the ferrets stayed in the bedroom with me. But this time they had the run of 3 rooms, while I was home. So now she had access to the bathroom trash bucket and she discovered toilet paper rolls! Once she found them, she would raid the trash for any that might be there and stash them under the bed. Again, this took me totally by surprise, I saw her walking along with one, she carried them so it looked like it was stuck on her head. She would have it in her mouth so the tube was over her snout and walk along like that. It was very funny to watch, because she had to walk funny to do it. Now I will say she never tried to stick her head in them, and Mishka and Ivanhoe showed no interest in them, or I wouldn't have allowed it to continue. I hadn't realized the extent of this until I looked under the bed. There were dozens of these under there! ( Shows you what my house keeping habits are like! ). I then decided to try an experiment, I took them all out from under the bed and scattered them about the room. She spent the 10 or 15 minutes putting them all back! So from then on, about twice a month I would take them out so she could put them back. ( I didn't let her know, but I would throw a few out to keep things from getting out of hand. ). She still kept ALf where ever she slept as well. Old habits never go away. After she passed away, it was a long time before I took the tubes out from under the bed.