I realize that I have not recently written about Anastasia, that whirlwind animal, ‘eaten up from nose to tail with curiosity.’ She is currently nosing around in a pile of envelopes which she overturned yesterday…but before I finished typing the sentence I heard her crawling into a cardboard tube. If I were playing on the floor with her, I would tilt up one end of the tube so that she could slide.
The most significant development in her career of ceaseless investigation is that she has discovered how to get into (although not out of) the bathtub. One afternoon as I came into the room, I was momentarily alarmed that I could not locate the carpet shark; however, I heard the bell of her collar calling me into the bathroom. Already laughing, I peered into the tub to find a very guilty looking ferret frozen under my gaze.
How, I asked myself, did Anastasia get into the tub? Could she have possibly climbed into the trashcan, and from there onto the toilet lid, and jumped across? Or did she scale the shower curtain with her clever claws? But after a couple days, the mystery was solved. To get into the tub, Anastasia merely jumped! She jumped high enough to catch the rim of the tub, and from sheer strength pulled the rest of her body up after her. Stricken with awe and no little amount of respect, I immediately snatched her away and put her back in her cage. I like my bath sans ferret, thank you.
Other than this astounding feat, Anastasia continues to be consumed with rage every time she fails to run fast enough to squeak into the closet, she still loves her occasional treat of an ice cube, and she will always be allured by, although not permitted to eat, Philip’s leather wallet. Also, we wish she would sleep through the night, or at least have the courtesy not to rattle her cage whenever she wakes up.
Most number of adorable ferret yawns in a row: an even dozen.
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