This is from bizarre News...I like the ferret angle!
 
 --------------- Ferret Averts Missile Crisis ---------------
 
PETERSON AIR FORCE BASE, CO - The Year 2000 missile warning center is
an investment of untold millions in taxpayer dollars.  The most powerful
computers and the latest electronic gear guarantee the safety of American
lives.  But when a serious problem stymied the engineers and computer
geniuses a ferret had to be called in to save the day.
 
To connect new computers at the center, wires had to be threaded through
40-foot-long conduits that were already in place.  Time ticked away while
the supercomputers were unable to communicate with each other and the
experts searched for a solution.  That's when Lt. Col. Randy Blaisdell
volunteered his pet fetter for the job.  Ferrets had been used to pull
wires through tight spaces in World War II-era airplanes.
 
[OS]
[Moderator's note: This story has been around enough that I'm going to
take a chance and say it's not a copyright issue to post it.  Don't sue
please.  BIG]
[Posted in FML issue 4505]