When ferrets raid the fridge...

[LindaM]

So, normally when I'm in the kitchen and getting things out of the fridge, Athena is the one that takes a look through the fridge and climbs up the first tier and does a few turns, before deciding there isn't another super interesting, and climbs down and allows me to close the fridge.

Last night, while I was getting out dessert and some soda, Loki decided to show up and take a look. He wandered over to the door I was holding open, paused dead still and took a big whiff. I swear.. I could see the gears grinding in his head for all of a split second. The next moment, he was busy trying to grab and pull down the bag of raw meat we'd bought from the store earlier. He was so determined in his attempts to pull the bag down, that I honestly just stood there and watched him for a while before interceding before he could break the cling wrap material on the packages inside. I even called my husband over to watch this little ferret try to steal a bag of meat.

The part that really surprised me was the fact that he was so adamant about trying to get the meat out. The bag contained some chicken breasts, beef patties, and a beef steak, so at least a 50-50% smell split. Neither of my ferrets are super fond of beef, and while they do eat it.. it's definitely not a favorite, and does require two or three dabs against the gums if a meal is overwhelmingly beef in flavor, every single time. So I was super surprised seeing him try to drag it off. And he definitely still remembered it this morning, I had to juggle eggs, a ferret, and orange juice while at the fridge this morning. Little bugger was so impatient for his breakfast this morning because of it too, lol.

[Heather]

LOL....hmmm, ferrets in the fridge. There are more than a few on here that have heard of the B&E twins escapades (Bacchus and Enigma). They're a naughty pair of 'binos. They're not very big, not very special, just very loved and spoiled. Quite simply, just UK hunting ferrets. Bacchus is the brains of the outfit, Enigma the brawn.....there is nothing, absolutely nothing this pair can't break into. Kitchen cupboards, china cabinet, audio cabinets, file drawers. They have learned how to remove masking tape and worse duct tape. The ultimate break and enter that this pair of conniving sods managed happened the day before Thanksgiving. They broke into the fridge and stole the Thanksgiving turkey. The extra fridge at the time was in the office. We used it as an overflow. On that day, I was thawing the Thanksgiving turkey in it. The turkey was sitting on a large platter to catch the blood and water. The B&E twins had been ripping up and down the hallway and were busy slamming cabinet doors in the office between rounds of I'm better than you are wrestling. I heard a loud crack and thump and then silence.....then this strange intermittent scraping noise and scuttling of ferret feet and some major dooking. It's something you have to investigate....you just know it's trouble. I walked down the hallway and imagine my shock as I saw the turkey disappear into the master bedroom I hurried down the hall and was in time to watch the wayward bird disappear under the bed The dooking and scuffling told me the miscreants who were involved with the disappearance of my 15 lbs turkey, plate and all. I assumed that I hadn't properly shut the fridge so returned the basically undamaged bird to the fridge (what's a few bite marks between friends (giggle) I was going to wash it down with vinegar anyway) No, the miscreant pair having figured it out once had no problem showing me a repeat performance. Childlocks had to be installed (note I said that in the plural because they figured out the velcro one). Just for some added information....their mother was never supposed to have kits. She broke out one night and broke into another hob's cage to make wonderful ferret whoopy and the result was the B&E twins and 8 other siblings. Wonderful hunters and all experts at getting out of locked cages.
ciao

[LindaM]

LOL! Heather that's an amazing story! Geez, the intelligence found in these wonderful little furbabies.. it amazes one every single day. I hope that my two don't end up figuring out how to open the fridge by themselves.. thus far I feel like they have been pretty mellow on the side of naughty (that or my perception of naughty is flawed since I own ferrets). They just climb into drawers, get on top of the dressers through the top drawers, chase each other from bedside table to bedside table across the bed, try and raid my pantry, Athena has even tried climbing to the food shelves but hasn't yet succeeded. But Loki is generally pretty mellowed out... Athena is the one with the antics.. since she learned how to climb the shower curtain, she has since also figured out that she can truly climb, period. She now has this thing that when I go to the toilet, to run after me, jump up and climb up my pants onto my lap so she can either be placed in the sink, or climb up from my lap to it, and expects the water faucet to be turned on for her pleasure, every single bathroom trip that she sees me go to.. thank God for it being winter, because my legs look like a scratching post.

As for Loki and his mission for the meat, he happily just finished his chicken dinner with Athena and is now busy cleaning his face on my bedroom carpet, sigh. They both gobbled down their chicken with my cat staring in horror as usual, and who also responded with that foot shake reaction when things gross him out. I also got a nice big tail poof when I tried offering him a chunky of raw chicken.. poor bugger, I wish he'd stop his food finickiness and join the ferrets in their meals.

And speaking of antics.. I've had to start using proper heavy dinner plates for their raw.. Athena kept dragging the paper plates off into our bedroom and hiding them under my bedside table or dresser... meat and all. Little terror tries to stash everything under a dresser, including me, lol.

[unclejoe]

Haha that's really funny. A 15 lb turkey with plate? Wow. Abita used to stash the soup bowl WITH SOUP behind a china cabinet.
Craziest food theft I've seen was Bella, my first. I peeled 6 Idahoes and left them n a pot of water on the floor of the living room. I spread newspapers around to catch the flying shavings. So I got up to clean up the papers and while in the kitchen I checked the roast. I was gone no more than 2 minutes. When I come back, the pot had nothing in it but water. I actually went back to check the papers for shavings because I thought I was going nuts. I found all of the spuds under the sofa I had sat on to do the peeling.

[unclejoe]

I forgot to add that Scamp will leap into the first or second shelf of our fridge every time he has the chance.  We've never had a feret do that before, but he has the ability to know when you are going for any door before you get there and be through it as soon as you open it.

[LindaM]

unclejoe Yep, that sounds like Athena. And unlike Loki, she still has the ability to crawl in underneath doors too.. so she ends up in the pantry without any problems. I tend to keep only a pack of paper plates, juice, water, and soda on the floor, so she has little interest in them, but she likes climbing onto the stack of paper plates and try to use that as leverage for her jump onto the first shelf in the pantry. And she tries to explore the fridge every chance that she gets, I've had to wait and pick her out of it a few times because she felt very content just sitting inside.

[Deleted]

Loved all the stories, but I must say, the turkey one had me trying not to laugh out loud. Thank you all for sharing.