Dear Ferret Volk,
 
I need your help in locating about 200 little putter-type golf balls or the
equivalent for the ferret slithering contest in our upcoming (downgoing?
heh heh) Ferret Olympics here in Seattle next Sunday, the 28th.
 
These plastic balls have plastic holding a lot of holes together and they
are thicker skinned than the ping-pong balls.  To say it another way, the
ball is full of holes, about pencil diameters and is quite light weight,
maybe just a little heavier than a ping-pong ball.
 
We don't want to use ping-pong balls since some complain that their ferret
has punctured one or two of them.  Fear is that ingestion of some plastic
may occur, hence that is why we want to go with the practice putting balls
used by golfers, say when they practice their putting on the living room
carpet.
 
The idea is to fill a large clear plastic bag about 3/4 full of the balls
and time how long it takes the contestant's ferret to slither his way
through the bag from one end to the other.  On each end of the bag there
will be a wire tube 4-inch diam and about 2-ft long.  The ferret goes into
the entrance tube, into the bag full of balls, and out the exit tube.  The
owner jumps up and down and dances around trying to get his ferret thru the
slithering contest faster than anyone else.
 
Anybody know how ferts go after carob-covered raisins and/or yoghurt-covered
ones?  I know they go absolutely wild over the chocolate covered raisins
(most do) but again, we're mindful of the fact that some consider chocolate
a potential poison to ferrets and would not likely participate in a
chocolate-covered raisin scratching/eating contest.
 
Ilayane Iaiya (sorry for the spell.) posted previously that chocolate in
excess of 1/2 oz per lb of body weight may make an animal or human sick,
but she did not say that this ration applied to the ferret and its super
fast digestive process.
 
Has anybody out there had his ferret get sick from eating M&Ms or choco-cov
raisins?  How about yoghurt-covered raisins?  What about miniature
marshmallows?
 
Will take a 1 1/2-ft long 2 X 6, drill about 8 holes into the 6-inch wide
side, spaced 2-inches apart and about 1/4-inch diameter and 1/4-inch deep.
Then stuff 8 tidbits into the holes, half in and half out, and set the
competing ferts at one end of say 5 of these boards.  Could call them "snack
boards." Tidbits could be x-covered raisins or midget marshmallows.  Idea
here is to time how long it takes for the first fert to munch it way to the
last tidbit at the far end of the snack board.  Winners ( 1st, 2nd, and 3rd
place) would receive Certificates of FERRET MERIT with the inscription of,
The Fastest Snacker in the West, or words to that effect.  Should work, I'd
think.
 
Edward Lipinski,  Ferret Frolics Leader.  (Lookin' for ideas.)
[Posted in FML issue 2347]