After today's story about ferrets exploring outside, I thought I'd tell about
my ferret, "Weasel"'s adventures.
 
I'm putting an addition onto my house.  Right now, the basement walls are up,
but the floor is still sand & there are no upper walls or roof.  So, I carried
Weasel down into the hole, and turned him loose.  (all drain tiles are safely
covered with gravel; I wouldn't want him finding THOSE!)
 
Well, he was startled and uncomfortable.  For a whole five seconds.  At that
point he figured "Hey, this is kinda neat!".  He found a nice patch of damp
sand (the whole floor, but this was a SPECIAL patch apparently), and started
to dig.
 
He digs with his hands, and then holds them together while he pushes the sand
under his belly.  He gets his belly area full of sand, then "scoots" backwards,
out of the hole, and scatters the sand.  Then he repeats the process.  When he
found a rock, he dug around it, clearing out the sand, until he could get a
handle on it, and he brought that back out with his hands, under his belly.
The rock he put off to the side quite a distance, rather than to the rear where
the sand was going; I suppose he didn't want it falling back in.
 
So, he dug a nice long, narrow trench, perhaps 8" deep (yes, 8"!), about 2"
 wide,
and about 1.5 feet long, tapering down to it's maximum depth.  He's started to
undercut the face now, so it looks like he's thinking tunnel here.  I'm not
sure where he's trying to go, but I'd rather not have him going actually
underground for fear of a cave-in.
 
 
It was interesting to watch him at this.  As far as I know, he's never dug
before, but after a few minutes he had the routine down awfully good.  Maybe
he's trying to make a nice little kozy spot at the end of this trench, to
curl up in?
 
 
One thing he did NOT enjoy was when I went over to the trench and put my hand
down into it (to see how deep it went).  He got somewhat defensive, and when
I pulled my hand out I knocked some sand from the sides down to the bottom,
and he was downright offended at that.  He stared at me, went in and cleaned
it up, and then stood over the hole as if daring me to try it again.
 
 
So, if you have any excavating to do, and a bit of time, consider putting
your carpet shark to work!
 
Dave Hinz (and Weasel)
 
[Posted in FML issue 0509]