Cheryl was talking about polecats:
 
I believe the umore common belief is that the ferret was from a now-extinct
(in the wild) polecat not a European one.  The earliest known wrtinings
that mention ferrets are from te area around the mediteraean Sea -
including the Bible though that quote is not universally translated into
ferret.  Even some of the old greek legends that now are translated as
'cat' more proprely refer to 'mouser'.  At that time the ferret was
domesticated while the cat was not - a better translation then would
probably be 'ferret'.
 
Its been many many years but the always white with red eyed ferret was
cross bred with the non-domesticated (though obviously captive) European
brown polecats.  Actually it is believed that at least two different
kinds of polecats were used - Siberian (also called Steppe if I remember
correctly) and the English polecats.
 
But there isn't universal agreement as far as I know.
 
bill and diane killian
zen and the art of ferrets
[Posted in FML issue 1289]