I just had an funny image (a joke, you might say).
 
One could try to train one's ferrets to go up inside vending machines and
loot the cookies and candy bars.  Especially well trained ferrets might be
able to tackle soda pop machines (big disadvantage there being one wouldn't
be able to watch one's ferret through the window to see if he or she gets
hung up or in trouble somehow).  I can just imagine the little one standing
on a row of Grandma's cookies tugging them out of each spiral enclosure in
turn and throwing them over the edge into the tray below.  I feel sure that
would be Jay Leno or David Letterman material.  I can just imagine the calls
to the vending machine manager . . . "my ferret is stuck inside your machine
. . . I leaned over to get my snack and he just kind of fell into the little
tray in the bottom" (right).  Also, Dors loves to puncture plastic wrapped
items with her fangs, so she'd puncture all the items she didn't get as well
as those she did, just on principle.
 
It's a funny idea . . . I'd never risk my beloved pets this way, of course.
Don't try it!  Little legs could get caught or broken, or a little ferret
could fall or be injured somehow otherwise not come out.  I almost didn't
send this because I wouldn't want to inspire anyone to try it . . .  but
on balance, it's a funny image.
 
Todd Cromwell
Dors and Seldon
[Posted in FML issue 1628]