Our shelter received a call on Tuesday from a person just north of here.  She
said that she and her husband had seen a ferret running around their farm for
the past couple of weeks.  She started to leave out canned cat food for it
and it had begun eating it.  Finally they put out a Have-a-Heart trap and
manage to catch it.  Now they wanted to know if we could come up and pick it
up.   Seems as if the ferret was not very docile and kept shaking the cage
door, but it seemed very fat and healthy.  <Hummm, two weeks outdoors and fat
and healthy?>
 
The next day my wife headed north with carry cage in hand.  At the farm she
was greeted by the woman who said that that morning the ferret had screamed
at her and sprayed.  In the house, my wife was shown the cage and found a
very dark auburn ball of fur all curled up, fast asleep.  As she got closer
the "ferret" woke up and stood up in the back of the cage.
 
The ferret turned out to be a beautiful female wild mink which the woman had
been hand feeding since she caught it.  They carried the mink outside and
released it.  The mink ran off, never looking back.
 
The woman by this time had really grown attached to the mink, and is now
seriously considering one of the tamer domestic cousins.
 
Dick Bossart
[Posted in FML issue 1143]