Sorry, that was just a reference to internet silliness with the walrus-bucket saga stuff. What I really wanted to talk about is ferrets and buckets. If you didn’t know this already, ferrets have strange reactions to large bowls and buckets. By strange I mean after encountering a large plastic bowl or bucket, a ferret will do one of two things:
- climb in and writhe around and do an otter impersonation by rolling onto his back and looking up at you with limp little arms resting on his chest.
- put front feet in, if it’s small enough, and start digging furiously like he’s trying to escape a mortal enemy by tunneling underground
But no matter what, your ferret will want to climb inside a bucket when he sees it. My theory is that he thinks it’s a hole and he’s got to get in and see where it goes. Bun, pictured here, loves buckets even more than the other ferrets. You’ve seen him climb into the garbage can…
In this shot, Bun has just woken up and found the bucket, newly placed in that spot. He’s investigating and will soon heave himself up by doing a pullup using his strong little brown arms. Then he’ll balance on the rim, lowering his front body into the “hole”, trying to anchor himself with his hind legs. Eventually momentum will take over and he’ll fall into the bucket ungracefully, despite his plans to carefully lower himself down.
And here’s the actual problem for ferret owners. Bun got stuck in that bucket, and I was really glad I was home to get him out when he got bored and wanted out. What if I’d gone away for a week and left the bucket there? It would be a Baby Jessica in the Well situation, all over again. Horrors.
