I hope I do this justice with words.  Buster, who is feeling much better (asked
me to scritch his belly for the first time in over a month--why I think probably
gastic distress), wanted out to play.  Well I wanted to see him doing a little
hopping around and dooking, so I let him out into the giant hallway of our
complex.  Being you basic featureless hallway, all he wanted to do was a
bee-line to the other end (as opposed to the explore in circles method).  Well,
all I has was a rear end view and this is what I saw:
 
His first few steps were those normal ferret walk steps--the old from one place
to another typical transportation.  Then he hit second gear.  He looked like a
metronome, bouncing side to side from the trot.  It was cute, but I've seen it
before.  But then he threw it into overdrive.  The back legs which had been
directly under his big butt started moving outward with larger range of motion
and moving in sync--just like ballooning tires on a drag car (maybe you have to
be a drag racing fan).  With the sound effects moving from a pitter-patter to
more of a thump-thump-thump , I was ROFLMAO.  Oh the little things in life.
 
I have asked a question a few times (though never on the list) about what those
little whisker like wild hairs were on the front legs between the "wrist" and
"elbow."  I though perhaps some type of musk gland or somesuch.  Well I never
found an answer, but was directed to Fara Shimbo.  I finally got around to
emailing her and this is what she had to say:
 
"The vibriscae on the backs of the legs are just feelers.  The best guess to
date is that they are used to feel for roots in tunnels as the ferret hunts
so that if the ferret has to make a speedy backward getaway, they know to go
over them rather than getting tangled up.  Many cats also have these long
whiskers on their forearms.  Ferrets don't always have them, and polecats
have very long stiff ones."
[Posted in FML issue 1205]