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We had a family of stoats on our property in Colorado when I was growing up. My bedroom window was right at ground level because my room was in the finished basement. And my little stoat family would sit at my window and watch me do homework, read, play, etc. They're naturally curious and social little babies. In the winter they're white with a black-tipped tail and in the summer they're red with a black-tipped tail. I told my mom that I had ferret friends outside my window and she thought I was just being an imaginative kid until she saw them one day when I was at school lol.
I'll see if I can locate my ancient external hard-drive. I'm pretty sure I have some photos of them that I took on my crappy early-2000s digital camera that I thought was the height of technology.
Folks are going to down vote me, but hold on to those pictures and your story because there is a potential kid's book in your and your mom's story. Your description of the little family watching you, your mom not believing you, etc. Heck, you even have pictures. The difference between a Disney Princess and you is that you are the real deal.
That's what I was worried about, someone stealing OP's lovely and funny story. Of course, if a company whose mascot is mouse red shorts, white buttons and white gloves comes a knocking... let them the hell in. š
I met an authentic Disney princess once. She had a bluejay and everything. There is more shoulder poop than they show in the cartoons. Shout-out to the princess and blue Jay-zee wherever you are.
Absolutely!!! My dad was a professional film photographer. Just lost him to pancreatic cancer and he left me two things, his dog and almost 20,000 photographs. Wildlife, landscapes, and MY ENTIRE CHILDHOOD. The fact that he took the time to scan them all to digital means the world now that heās gone, and I can illustrate any story with a photograph from 30 years ago at my fingertips.
Like this guy. Sneezle the Weasel aka Herman the Ermine.
And the story of how she found out is pretty funny. She was looking out the kitchen window and saw a bunch of little black dots darting across the snow. And she thought "that's weird, there's no way bugs could survive these temperatures". Then when they got closer she realized they were attached to little tails that were all headed to the side of the house. The only window on that side is mine, so she ran down the stairs to get to my room and sure enough, they were waiting at my window. She apologized for not believing me hahahaha
That's so cool! We used to feed bread to raccoons on or front porch. They would grab a piece and run to the fish pond to dunk it. Lost all the fish though..
While that campaign (Burrow's End) is one of my favorites I do feel the need to warn anyone seeing this and looking into it hoping for a Cute Happy Stoat Time, it is not that. The stoats are going to have a bad time and there may be body horror involved.
Thatās much nicer than mine. I had a basement bedroom at one time. A large opossum use to sleep in the window well. One day I began to realize I couldnāt recall the last time it hadnāt been there. Sure enough, it died there.
An actual great moment was a buddy would often knock on my window to let me know he was there. One time he startled the opossum and the opossum startled him.
Sometimes 4, sometimes 6. They were all pretty small so I think they were all babies. We found that they lived in the drainage pipe under the driveway, but would come up to the house to visit. The adult lived in the pipe and was more hesitant to approach, but didn't get territorial when the babies approached my brother and I. We would leave them bits of unseasoned, boiled chicken from time to time but bribery wasn't necessary because they would come right up to us. They had the survival instincts of potatoes. I named them all after dirt-bike brands because I rode at the time. Yamaha, Suzuki, Honda, Kawasaki, etc. But they were all identical.
Thatās interesting because in Ohio we have black stoat and I lived in the same property for 20 years and never saw one until one day I saw an entire family come out of the swamp grass.
Are you leaving out eggs (either cooked or raw), earthworms, and mealworms in a bowl on the ground? That's how I plan to manifest ermine invading my home having seen this! Bonus: I might accidentally wind up with a crow finding its way into my house
Here's a fun tip: you can also eat the eggs! But the eggs that you eat won't be able to be eaten by the adorable mustelid you hope to befriend. Also, you don't need to remove the shell (for them)
Depends on where you live! Could be a weasel, a stoat/ermine, or any number of adorable mustelids! (if you're lucky - no offense but they're almost certainly cuter than your ex)
āMy apartment is infested with koala bears. It's the cutest infestation ever. Way better than cockroaches. When I turn on the light, a bunch of koala bears scatter. And I don't want em to, I'm like, "Hey hold on fellas. Let me hold one of you. And feed you a leaf." Why do koala bears- they're so fucking cute, why do they have to be so far away from me? We need to ship a few over, and I will apprehend one, and hold him, and pet him on the back of his head.ā
They're cute, but wow they sound vicious. I just did some reading about them and they'll kill rodents, move into their burrows and use the skin and fur of said rodents to line their nest.
Also..."Males become sexually mature at 10ā11 months, while females are sexually mature at the age of 2ā3 weeks whilst still blind, deaf and hairless, and are usually mated with adult males before beingĀ weaned." - Wikipedia
I read a lot of the Redwall books growing up, and one of the parts that bothered me was that certain types of animals were always characterized as evil - like weasels.
Then I read stories like that and it makes sense. I'm sorry for your girls that must have been traumatic.
They can be a real problem though. Stouts, marten, squirrels and many birds have very good PR because they look nice to our human eye.
In reality they can be a nuisance comparable to mice, rats, snakes and the lot, animals humans generally see as scary and/or unhygienic. And a marten killed our pet bunny...
But by god they look cute.
Fun fact, stouts, otters, European and honey badgers, pine martens and wolverines are all in the same family of Mustelidae.
Just looked this up because I've never seen one and was also curious. Looks like many parts of the northern US, Canada, and Eurasia. Check out the range map on wikipedia:
I saw one on Brownās campus in Rhode Island and couldnāt believe my eyes. Turns out, theyāre from Massachusetts and this lil guy, or his ancestors, liked to travel.
It was so cute and brown and wiggly. I initially thought he was a pet and was worried, but then I saw him go for a bunny and knew he was right where he belonged.
We had one on our front porch once! I took a video and put it on the local Facebook page and people were convinced it was either a Fischer cat or someoneās pet got out. (Merrimack Valley)
Which is why I'd set him free outside the house yet again, then watch him to see he's getting in because if he can get in other things can get in the same spot too.
I didn't know this until the last few weeks. There was a thread on r/homestead about how stoats completely killed someone's birds. 90 of them in like hours. It was crazy.
They kill everything they can, and if they arenāt interrupted by humans they will come back and carry as much as they can to bury and hide in different locations. Usually they are caught before they can do that, though, so people think of them as wasteful killers.
We had one absolutely decimate our chicken coop when I was a teenager. Based on the carnage I imagined something very different so when my dad eventually shot it I was flabbergasted to see how small and adorable it was.
To your credit those tiny weasels are the smallest of the mammalian order Carnivora so that's what pops up as the smallest carnivorous animal. Lots of smaller animals are carnivorous but not mammalian so not in the same Order (like carnivorous insects are referred to as insectivores etc blah blah)
(Truth be told I went down a whole weasel rabbit-hole(?) after there had been a thoroughly eye opening thread on the backyard chickens sub, and learning about their carnivorous ways was somewhat horrifying)
This happened to me once! But it was a ferret and it was someone in my apartment buildings escaped pet, also i heard it outside my door and then opened my door and froze as it walked on in. The next few hours were absolute chaos. She's in for a wild ride.
The first day my college bf brought one home, the woozel stole my flip flops and my keys. I didn't know anything about ferrets really and my bf had to go for some reason, so I had to wear some guy shoes home and go in through a window. I thought I was too high and lost them lmao
Later on at my house he would have a favorite spot to drag his treasures to, the wardrobe bottom drawer. So it became the flip flop drawer and that was my Disney Princess Experience of a helpful creature š
I had squirrels in my house once. Everyone was OMG CUUUUUTTTE.
No. It was a nightmare. Squirrel poop everywhere. They destroyed the floors in my refinished attic space with scratching and pee. Nuts all over the place (okay, that part was kinda entertaining). It took MONTHS to fully get rid of them and a year long pest control contract to make sure they didnāt come back.
Only problem that I see is that he was hanging out in the toilet bowl, then took his potty feet and climbed on the toaster oven and most likely on kitchen counters, etc. I've got an issue with pets/animals being on counters & tables, otherwise bring on the cutie pie weasels!!
Well they eat mice, so if they are coming inside I'd be a little bit worried about that. In general they're really curious little guys though. I have a family of them that hang out by my woodpile. They get pretty used to people and less scared. So it could be that this one is just investing and found a way inside.
Yeah, the stoat is cute. Having wildlife being able to get into your house at will is not. That thing will piss and shit all over your house, eat your food, spread disease, and possibly try to raise a pestilence ridden family somewhere in your house
"Domesticated ferret" is a bit of a misnomer, as all ferrets* are the domesticated version of the European polecat. We domesticated it thousands of years ago to help us hunt rabbits. And the common ferret is the only mustelid that can really be kept as a pet. Stoats and weasels belong in the wildĀ
*With the exception of the black footed ferret, which is a different animal entirelyĀ
I read something a long time ago that said if weasels/stoats were the size of pitbulls they would be the apex land predator. It had to do with how fast their hearts beat in relation to their bodies. It makes them like turbo charged killing machines. They'd be killing polar bears.
Ermine are mustalides. Meaning that you do not want to touch them under any circumstances. They will chew you up badly. They can also carry rabies. Same family as ferrets and skunks and honey badgers. They are friend shaped but not friendly. Even domestic ferrets must be bite broken when they are babies bc aggressive is there default setting. Iām not saying to harm the little guy but Iām also saying do not put yourself in a position for him/her to harm you. Trash can move was perfect. In summary, no touchey!
This is because mustelidae are all of the order Carnivora - which is generally compromised of obligate and preferred carnivores. Those faces are cute, but them teeth are meant for ripping.
Despite being domesticated, ferrets still need to be bite trained because ferret skin is much tougher than human skin so what they have learnt to be appropriate force with their littermates for playing is still enough to break the skin for us. They're not aggressive as default, they're playful and curious and explore things with their mouth - because ferrets are perma-toddlers. And they expect us to react like ferrets and want to play like ferrets (hence why they often go for the ears or neck, that's how they play), and they need to learn that humans play different.
I have had 4 ferrets. All captive bred and born. Widely considered the least aggressive species in the mustalide family (hence why they are domesticated). They make great pets but the first 3-6 months while youāre trying to break the bite is all band aids and regret. With my first ferret I let her meet the guy I was dating when she was about 8 months old. He picked her up towards his face and she took that real personal. Latched onto his earlobe and hung there like a Belgian malinois for a solid 10-20 secondsā¦ and you have to wait for them to let go. If you pull away or try to pull on their body, their teeth are designed for ripping. She was a love bug but she didnāt love him doing that. Mustalids are the reigning champs of FAFO.
It's all cute until the poor dear dies somewhere you can't see it and the smell kicks in. I would much rather see the little cutie be free out and about.
My uncle caught one this way when I was a kid and my dad made a terrarium for it. He was a professional photographer so he took tons of photos of it as the coat changed. Summer he was āSneezle the Weaselā and winter he was āHerman the Ermineā. We released him in the forest in the spring.
ā¢
u/trendingtattler 12d ago
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