There is a rarely seen etching created by Rembrandt that shows a "Rat killer" with a ferret liked animal perched on his shoulder: http://www.rembrandtpainting.net/rmbrndt_etchings/etchings_c/cs.htm Rembrandt made a lot of etchings depicting life in that era of time, it only seems fit that this "rat killer" would use a ferret to aid in his work. Personally, I think ferrets were trained a lot differently than what we train our ferrets to do and sitting on the shoulders came to nature to our weasel's relatives. However, I wouldn't picture a ferret sitting in a certin position too long to be painted by life. For example, look at Leonardo da Vinci's "Lady with Ermine", the muscles in his arms of those of a person. [Posted in FML 5865]