I work in a museum, and recently I thought it would be neat to catalogue a
bunch of art work that features ferrets.  After many hours of poking around
and about 8,000 images later, I only found three.
Leonardo da Vinci's "Woman w/ an Ermine", though she's holding the animal
so gently, w/ so little restraint, that either it's a VERY tame ermine, or
it's an albino ferret.
Then there's Parmigianino's "Portrait of a Young Lady", w/ a woman w/ a
mink.  At least, I THINK it's a mink. It's a ferret-looking brown animal w/
no mask, slithering down over her right shoulder.  She's wearing a leather
glove on her right hand, and the animal is biting it.  On a closer
inspection, the animal is leashed by a ring through its nose attached to a
gold chain.
The third is Rembrandt's "The Rat Catcher".  I'm not sure if Rembrandt
never saw a ferret, or if the rat catcher in the print forgot his at home
or something.  The animal sitting calmly on the man's shoulder looks like a
chinchilla to me...
 
In doing some book research to try to locate ferrets in art, I came across
a small passage talking about animals depicted in art to tell people what
the Bible says is taboo to eat.  Although they didn't show a picture of a
ferret in art, apparently it says in the Bible not to eat your ferret!
Everybody, remember!  Don't Eat Your Ferret!!  ;)
 
Took my ferrets to the beach this past weekend.  Whee!  Sand! Grass! Water!
Waves!  They really loved the swimming, although they smelled very fishy
after.  ("Aw, Mom, come on! Why do we need a bath now?")
 
Carol-Anne, HodgePodge, and Portnoy
[Posted in FML issue 1231]