Present Day Ferret Achievements

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World War II

During that war, B-26 Marauders and B-29 Superfortresses were built at Offutt Air Force Base, Nebraska.

The base had a ferret farm and used the ferrets to run through the structure of the plane with wires attached, making easy work of wiring the planes.

I wonder if they were rewarded with a medal and a pension at the end of their work ?

 

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National Accelerator Laboratory

In 1971 an article was written about Felicia, the atomic age pipe cleaner!

She helped clean the 300-foot pipes in the Meson Laboratory building under construction at the $250 million National Accelerator Laboratory at Batavia.

Another ferret to the rescue … but I hope that they didn’t send her to a “live museum” to live out her old age once they retired her. Too depressing to think about if they did ?

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Y2K Center at the U.S. Space Command

In May 1999 the command’s new year 2000 missile warning center at Peterson Air Force Base needed to connect computers so additional wires had to be run through 40’ long narrow pipes.

Lt. Col. Randy Blaisdell, who supervised the building of the Y2K center, remembered that ferrets were used at Offutt Air Force Base during WII, so he brought in his pet ferret, Misty, to help out.

He tied a piece of yarn around Misty’s waist and she crawled through the conduit, towing the yarn behind her. Then the loose end was tied around the wires and they were pulled through the conduit.

A difficult, fiddly task which would have taken a person weeks to complete was finished within an hour and Misty was rewarded with her favorite treat, a strawberry pop-tart ?

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A Royal Wedding and the Millennium Concert in London

Both occasions saw ferrets pulling cables through pipes to help the technicians get their sound and TV paraphernalia all working for both events ?

 

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Ferret Therapy for Sick Kids

In 2002 the BBC reported a story called “Ferret Therapy for Ill Children”, and described how Dr June McNicholas had been taking her two ferrets to visit kids in hospitals and schools in the West Midland area in England.

So, to all those nay sayers out there, who say ferrets are dangerous and vicious, this should prove that they are not and are helping with the healing process!

I was amused to see that the photo used in the article was the same as the one they had for the Millennium Concert article. Obviously don’t have many ferret photos available in their library ?

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A Ferret as a Stage Prop

In 2004, Martha Henry played the part of the Queen in Cymbeline at the Stratford Shakespeare Festival in Toronto.

She demonstrated her character’s evil personality quite graphically during the first act when she removes an albino ferret, which is obviously a loved pet, from her bosom and walks off with her leashed ferret leading the way.

Then during the 2nd half of the play, she enters with a white stole draped across her shoulders, revealing her change of heart regarding her once loved pet and showing that she is, in fact, the archetypal wicked stepmother without a shred of decency in her cruel and heartless bones!

Boo hiss to the wicked stepmother!!!  ?

 

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Ferrets of War

Quebec and Imphal were two ferrets who were presented by locals when the 1st Battalion Yorkshire was on duty in Northern Ireland.

It doesn’t say what they did – perhaps they were ferreting out things about the IRA ? or maybe they were just mascots for the Battalion – but they will be included in an exhibition called “The Animals’ War” at the Imperial War Museum in London from July 14 2006 – April 22 2007.

 

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A School’s Hockey Team Mascot

Not only can ferrets be mascots to the Army, they can also spur the kids in St Stephen’s Year 9 hockey team (circa 1993) to bigger and better goals.

More power to the Masher! ?

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