We had a late neuter male named Cubby, he was a really big boy with paws an inch across. We wanted his paw print to hand out to kids at education and renaissance faire events, where he was known as "Keelhaul Cubby". No problem right... here are the steps we took. The Plan 1. Go to Michaels and pick up a small amount of black non toxic paint. 2. Make room on the counter and spread out an old news paper. 3. Lay down one 3x3 white card stock and apply some paint for "inking" the paw. 4. Lay down a couple more 3x3 white card stock for the impressions. 5. Wake Cubby and hustle him into the kitchen. 6. Place one of his front paws in the paint. 7. Place the same paw on each of the blank card stocks to get the impression. 8. Copy the impression for handing out to the kids. The Reality 1. Go to Michaels and get paint (check) 2. Make room on the counter ( geez a piece of newspaper takes a lot of room ) a. Pushed stuff out of the way and made enough room for a piece of notebook paper with the card stock on it 3. Apply paint for inking pad a. That stuff was thick and goopy but we wanted a good print right, thicker is probably better. 4. Lay down a few 3x3 card stock a. No problems here boy this is easy, exactly to plan, why did we wait so long to do this. 5. Wake Cubby a. He was already up that was convenient huh. b. Cubby was not only up he wanted to play. 6. Place one front paw in the paint. a. It sounded so simple but 3 paws ended up in the paint and the goop stuck to one of them. b. Cubby broke the sound barrier trying to shake the goop off his paws. c. At this point we had paint on all the appliances and black stripes up and down our shirts, faces, hair, a clump of goop slowly sliding down one of the cabinets and all the nicely placed card stock was fluttering around the kitchen like moths at the yard light. 7. Hold Cubby still while my wife sets out some new card stock. 8. Place one front paw on the new card stock to make a perfect impression there was still plenty of goopy paint on them. a. Front paw is gently placed on the paper. b. Cubby immediately turns into a cartoon with the blurry legs and the card stock sets a new card throwing distance record as it flies off the counter neatly applying black paint to the dining room wall, followed by the paint covered notebook paper landing on the kitchen floor paint side down. c. Cubby finally gets a good solid grip on the counter and plows into all the things we had moved out of the way neatly painting each with his paws. d. We got some nice prints on the appliances, if only we could photocopy a blender. 9. Wash Cubby's paws while my wife returns to step 2 and gets ready for another attempt 10. Apply paint for inking pad (thinner this time) 11. Lay out new card stock a. Tape it down 12. Place one front paw in the paint. a. Success this time, wet is not as bad a goopy apparently. 13. While holding Cubby in a patented two fisted ferret lock gently press his paw onto the firmly secured card stock. a. Humm it is just a black spot must have too much paint. 14. Repeat steps 11 thru 13 a. At least 20 more times with results varying from tiny blobs to perfect streaks that look like the cover of the howling dvd. 15. Lay out the last of the card stock 16. Wet down the last of the paint to get enough for the final attempts 17. Gently place the paw in the paint a. Easier this time because Cubby finally gave up and went to sleep 18. Slowly and firmly press the paw to each piece of card stock a. Finally sweet success and it only took 2 hours, not counting clean up time of course. Ok it wasn't really that bad but I think if I were going to try it again I would do it in the bathtub by laying down a few pieces of the card stock and putting the paint on one and letting the ferret wander around until I got a good print. Any craft store will have washable non toxic paint, imagine all the fun you can have. Ken Nyren P.S. if you use our method I would suggest you have a video camera handy [Posted in FML 7504]