Dear Ferret Folks-
 
I was driving with my family today in northern central Massachusetts and
saw the most glorious weasel padding along beneath the snow-shrouded
hemlocks!  He (yes, 'it' could just as easily have been a she) was much
smaller than the fisher cats that my husband and I see around here from
time to time.  He was maybe three times the size of the ermine I saw in
the woods here once, and twice the size of a standard domesticated female
ferret, say Switch or Lily.
 
His coat was very dark, maybe black, or a very dark brown that just
appeared balck against the white purity of the new fallen snow.  The
coat was uniformly lush and velvety, but appeared to be no longer than
a standard ferret's.  The fellow looked very muscular through the
shoulders, very healthy, and ran very much like a ferret.  He almost
rippled along the ground as he ran.
 
He ran in front of my car and disappeared into the undergrowth at the
side of the road.  My 22 month old nephew said clearly from his car seat
"ferret!!"  We think maybe he was a mink, and we feel honored to have
seen him!  He was very regal.  He was sighted in an area of swampy pine
woods, the same area where we sometimes have to break for beavers in the
road.
 
Alexandra in MA
[Posted in FML issue 4816]