A Very Ferrety Christmas - 2010

Happy Holidays!

How To Wrap A Christmas Gift (With a Ferret in the House)

Just ran across this on the 'net and it reminded me so much of the last few days around our house, I had to share:

1. Clear large space on table for wrapping present.
2. Go to closet and collect bag in which present is contained, and shut door.
3. Open door and remove ferret from closet.
4. Go to cupboard and retrieve rolls of wrapping paper.
5. Go back and remove ferret from cupboard.
6. Go to drawer, and collect transparent sticky tape, ribbons, scissors, labels, etc...
7. Lay out presents and wrapping materials on table, to enable wrapping strategy to be formed.
8. Go back to drawer to get string, remove ferret that has been in the drawer since last visit and collect string.
9. Remove present from bag.
10. Remove ferret from bag.
11. Open box to check present, remove ferret from box, replace present.
12. Lay out paper to enable cutting to size.
13. Try and smooth out paper, realize ferret is underneath and remove ferret.
14. Cut the paper to size, keeping the cutting line straight.
15. Throw away first sheet as ferret chased the scissors, and tore the paper.
16. Cut second sheet of paper to size - by putting ferret in the bag the present came in.
17. Place present on paper.
18. Lift up edges of paper to seal in present. Wonder why edges don't reach. Realize ferret is between present and paper. Remove ferret.
19. Place object on paper, to hold in place while tearing transparent sticky tape.
20. Spend 20 minutes carefully trying to remove transparent sticky tape from ferret with pair of nail scissors.
21. Seal paper with sticky tape, making corners as neat as possible.
22. Look for roll of ribbon. Chase ferret down hall in order to retrieve ribbon.
23. Try to wrap present with ribbon in a two-directional turn.
24. Re-roll ribbon and remove paper, which is now torn due to ferret's enthusiastic ribbon chase.
25. Repeat steps 13-20 until you reach last sheet of paper.
26. Decide to skip steps 13-17 in order to save time and reduce risk of losing last sheet of paper.
27. Retrieve old cardboard box that is the right size for sheet of paper.
28. Put present in box, and tie down with string.
29. Remove sting, open box and remove ferret.
30. Put all packing materials in bag with present and head for locked room.
31. Once inside lockable room, lock door and start to relay out paper and materials.
32. Remove ferret from box, unlock door, put ferret outside door, close and relock.
33. Repeat previous step as often as is necessary (until you can hear ferret from outside door)
34. Lay out last sheet of paper. (This will be difficult in the small area of the toilet, but do your best)
35. Discover ferret has already torn paper.
36. Unlock door go out and hunt through various cupboards, looking for sheet of last year's paper.
37. Remember that you haven't got any left because ferret helped with this last year as well.
38. Return to lockable room, lock door, and sit on toilet and try to make torn sheet of paper look presentable.
39. Seal box, wrap with paper and repair by very carefully sealing with sticky tape. Tie up with ribbon and decorate with bows to hide worst areas. Label. Sit back and admire your handiwork, congratulate yourself on completing a difficult job.
40. Unlock door, and go to kitchen to make drink and feed ferret.
41. Spend 15 minutes looking for ferret until coming to obvious conclusion.
42. Unwrap present, untie box and remove ferret.
43. Go to store and buy a gift bag.

~~Author Unknown

But now you know why the paper is always wrinkled and the gift is always late!

Happy Christmas!

Nap Time for Bandit

Ferrets vs Logan County - Ferrets win thanks to Larry Haverfield

Thank you, Mr. Haverfield!

The state judge ruled against Logan County, which sought to exterminate the prairie dog population on a private 10,000-acre ranch. Poisoning off the prairie dogs, which are the favorite prey of the black-footed ferret population that was reintroduced to the ranch in 2007, would have been a death sentence to the ferrets.


Ninety-eight percent of the prairie dog population of the Great Plains has been wiped out, and the remaining 2 percent are still subject to the “kill them all” statute put into play in 1901, when a pre-conservation mindset saw the near extermination of the state’s whitetail and mule deer, wild turkeys, bison, pronghorn elk and prairie dogs.

This article raises some additional questions for me too, though:

The ranchers’ legal battles started in 2008 when they refused to allow Logan County exterminators to poison the prairie dogs on their property. A district judge recognized that the FSW had defined the ranch as a promising site for reintroduction of black-footed ferrets and slapped the county with a restraining order.

Logan County tried to repeal that ruling, but on Sept. 20 Judge Jack Lively ruled that the restraining order would stand. The Haverfield-Barnhardt ranch and the 90-feet vegetative boundary that surrounds it are permanently off-limits to poisoning.

Why was Logan County attempting to apply poison to Mr. Haverfield's privately owned land? As I see it, Mr. Haverfield not only stood up for the black-footed ferrets, he stood up for private land rights and against putting poison into our habitats.

Broward Ferret Rescue & Referral Announces 2nd Annual Ferret Spooktactular

The event will be held Saturday, October 16th from 6 to 8 p.m. at the Lauderdale Surf Club, 2 Palm Avenue, Lauderdale by the Sea, Florida. Admission is $7.00 per person with proceeds going to support the Ferret Rescue.

Although our ferrets can not attend this particular event, be sure to bring photos of your favorite fuzzies in costume. Prizes will be awarded for "Best Costume" in both the Ferret and Human catagories. (Costumes for the humans are not required but highly encouraged) There will also be food, games, a raffle and a guest speaker - a fun night for a good cause.

The Broward Ferret Rescue & Referral is a small "no kill" shelter founded in 2000. In 2004, it became a 501c3 non-profit organization so your donations are tax deductible. PETCO, ZuPreem and many other corporate sponsors help support the Rescue and its events. Additional support comes from individual memberships, and from fundraising events such as the Annual Ferret Spooktacular.

Melanie Dawn Molina Wood

Melanie Dawn Molina Wood: "I connected Blogger to my http://flavors.me page - http://flavors.me/melaniedawn"

Ferrets, LED lighting and Wind Cave National Park - Oh My!

It is not often that I can write about two of my favorite subjects in one blog post, but Wind Cave National Park in South Dakota allows me to do just that.

Wind Cave was the first cave in the world to be designated as a national park. Opened in 1903 it is currently the fourth longest cave in the world, and explorers are still discovering new passage ways. The cave system is also known for its “boxwork, an unusual cave formation composed of thin calcite fins resembling honeycombs. ”

On July 4th, 2007, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and National Park Service employees reintroduced black-footed ferrets to a small prairie section of the 28,295 acres of mixed-grass prairie and ponderosa pine forest that make up the above ground area of the national park. At the time, acting superintendent Rick Mossman was quoted as saying, “It has been thirty years since the last sighting of a black-footed ferret in Wind Cave National Park. We hope this is the start of a self sustaining population that will restore a missing link to our mixed-grass prairie ecosystem.”

A year later, park superintendent Vidal Davila reported fourteen kits were counted in the primary reintroduction areas during four nights of surveying. And last year, park rangers began offering summer night hikes to educate visitors and, if they are lucky, so they can see the Black-Footed Ferrets in the wild.

And in June of this year, the park replaced the cave’s incandescent lighting system with LEDs. The $2 million project was paid for entirely from park ticket sales. It is expected to reduce the lighting bill by about 80% and helps cut back on the algae growth generated by the heat of the old incandescent lights. As an added bonus the LEDs highlight the true colors inside the cave.



For more information about Wind Cave National Park, visit http://www.nps.gov/wica/