Today I saw three quadruped mammals sleeping on their backs, which used to seem odd to me except that my cat, Simon, does it all the time. At the pet store, there was a ferret that really, truly appeared dead but was just peacefully sleeping. In another cage, a hamster was sleeping on its back, paws askew. What’s with this? That’s the ferret pictured (with Mr. Pencil’s abhorrent camera phone, sorry).