staying in a place with a ferret

When I lived in the same place for a few years I noticed that the cats used a larger and larger vocabulory with me the longer I stayed. Once I went upstairs to do something with the owner of the cats and one of the cats came in and had a long conversation with me. He would not stop "talking" until I got up and put some food in his dish. I assumed that is what he wanted, but he might also have wanted me to take him outside for a walk. Because I got up earliest I fed the cats and then started taking them for walks.
I have noticed the same thing with the ferret that is also here on the farm temporarily. The more I interact with it, the more "vocab" I hear.