Kansas City journal. [volume] (Kansas City, Mo.) 1897-1928, 1898-01-09
FUN WITH The FERRET.
THE sNAKY LITTLE ANIMAL o
TO BE DEPENDED ON.
Likes to Find n Good Deep Hole and
Then Curl Up Well Out of Reach
While Its Owner Waits
for abbits

trained ferret are proverbial the world
over-at least in whatsoever regions
there Is game for the ferret to operate
on. Every ferret purchased from a fancier
Is warranted broke" and the owner of
the snaky-bodied animal never really finds
out what sort of u bargain he has made
until the critical moment arrives. when,
having put the ferret against a burrow.
he awaits the return of the blood-thirsty
varmint with ill-disguised apprehensive-
ness. says the Minneapolis Journal.
Most of the warranted broke" ferrets
one gets in this part of the country may
be counted on to select the first really
snug rabbit burrow encountered for a more
or less indefinite stay. Once your ferret
has settled himself comfortably in an I'M
foreground corner twenty-five or thirty feet
out of reach, it is, as a persistent rabbit
hunter of this city has often remarked.
AL hill getting him out" Extremely
well-informed people assert that if a dead
rabbit is poked into the hole. Mr.. Ferret
will instantly fasten on and submit to be-
ing pulled like a cork out Of a bottle. This
Is all very pretty in theory, and very oc-
casionally it works in practice; but there
are several interchangeable hunters In Mime
apolis who perfectly recollect incidents de-
StructiVe of every preconceived ferret the
DRY. one of them tried Il week or two ago
to lure his s. ferret from a rabbit 5urrow
at Lake of the Isles: using every ill-smell-
ing thing his Imagination could suggest.
with the exception of limburger cheese. OF
which, unfortunately, he had not a supply:
Despite the odorous destinations of putrid
beef, rancid pork and degenerate rabbit,
that ferret elected to stay where 1t was
warm, and, so far as his owner knows to
the contrary, he is still alternating peace
fully somewhere i'll the bowels Of the
earth.
Several of the local rabbit-hunters adhere
to the sometimes effective policy of keep
Ing a string on the ferret. bv means or
which. if the measly little animal evinces
q disposition to obstinacy, he may be
even this plan has its drawbacks, and they
are sufficiently serious. For instance. the
burrow into which the ferret has been
put is contiguous to a tree or brush growth.
Per consequence, the hole is crossed and
recrossed by roots. The ferret makes up
in instructive cunning what he lacks in
Intelligence. His first care, therefore. when
hampered with a string on his muzzle, is
to hopelessly entangie himself with under
ground roots. a proceeding that often re-
suits in his ,undoing, because, after his
owner has abandoned him in disgust. he
finds it impossible to release these shackles
OF his own forging, and thus dies ignomin-
1ously from starvation.
The really well-broken ferret is the ex-
ception that proves the rule. Even this
the experience Of a south town man who
has two pink-eyed albinos, which he as
serts to be the most accomplished team
ever hunted over in the west.
badly lacerated hand and living in a blue
terror of hydrophobia. He put his good
on Christmas eve with the idea of hurry
ing the ferret's exit, when the raZor-pawed
creature tackled on as though its ancestors
had been reared on human flesh for a
century. Perhaps the ferret was hardly to
blame. as the man had been handling blood
stained rabbits; and his digit was CORE
spondingly mellow: but. after all, a hunt
Ing companion given to such dangerous
lapses of judgment is hardly the sort to be
for indiscriminate use.
Still. those whose experience with fer
rets has made them familiar with the va
carries of the bread manage to get a good
gentleman of no little fame as a rabbit
hunter says that he never has any trouble
with his ferret. an old stager Of several
rying in his pocket, attached to a string.
a particularly vile piece of meat. The
odor of that meat Is so excruciatingly
from him in alright whenever he says a
word about rabbiting. fearful lest he may
ask them to accompany him on one of his
not keep a coachman for the reason that
he insists on hanging. his rabbiting coat.
con that awful piece OF meat. in
The ferret puts in all its spare time trying
to find a. way out of its box to the meat in
the mans coat pocket. so that when the
the rabbit chaser from an underground re-
treat; 1t proves peculiarly effective: The
CudCIlIItu oDJttl SlIe.luOuSty, though.
Three very satisfactory people lave left
the mans service on account of the evil
smelling meat. and the last one. an i'm
ported servant with ideas of his rights.
says the lawsted stuff smelt that 'orrid
OF couldn't bloody well blow me nose for 4
week hawfter."
Still the man hangs on to his ferret and
}~ustities his abiding affection for the animal
by showing up every once in a while with
a good string of fat rabbits.
The majority of winter sportsmen seem
to get more fun out of following a beagle
In such country as is found adjacent to
is effective. and it is fairer sport than
watching a hole in which a ferret Is oper-
ating. When a rabbit is started by the
dog. a hunter HES himself as rapidly as
possible to the highest bit of ground in the
vicinity. In Its doubling and twistings to
evade the dog. the rabbit is reasonably
sure to come within range of the twelve
gauge. and it is no slow work to bow him
over when he is really alarmed and run
ming to save his skin.
There isn't a more comical little customer
in the world than the cottontail. Some of
the antics he goes through in doubling and
lodging would make a Chinese god yiggle
like a schoolgirl, and many a good shot
has been so overcome with laughter at the
queer antics of his quarry that shooting
1t became an impossibility. Even the last
act of the stricken bunny is Spectacularly
amusing, for when hit he turns Il double
somersault that would excite the envy of
the most agile performer in that line of
effort the world has ever known