There is a particular silence every ferret owner learns to fear. It means the ferret is busy.
Ferrets are long, low, endlessly curious members of the weasel family. They worked alongside people for centuries before they moved onto the sofa, and today they share homes around the world. Their owners tend to describe them in the same breathless way: playful, cheeky, affectionate and permanently up to mischief.
Their curiosity has no off switch. A ferret will investigate every gap behind the washing machine, every open bag, every sleeve with an arm still in it. Many are natural collectors. Owners regularly discover a secret stash under the sofa: socks, keys, a single slipper, the remote control that vanished last week.
Then there is the war dance. An excited ferret arches its back, fluffs up its tail and bounces sideways around the room, now and then crashing into the furniture, often making a soft clucking sound its fans call dooking. It looks alarming the first time. It is pure joy.
For all that bounce, ferrets sleep a great deal, and they sleep with total commitment. Plenty of owners have panicked over a ferret so deeply asleep it seemed impossible to wake, only for it to open one eye, yawn enormously and resume the chaos.
They do best with company, plenty of time out of the cage to play, and an owner who enjoys a good game of chase. They also need care that suits them, from a vet who knows ferrets to a home made safe for an animal that can squeeze through astonishingly small gaps.
Ferrets have long carried a reputation for being smelly or fierce. Anyone who has watched one fall asleep in the hood of a jumper, or steal a sock and gallop off with what can only be described as a grin, tends to change their mind fast.
If a ferret has stolen your heart, or your socks, we'd love to hear about it.
Sources: RSPCA, keeping ferrets ยท Ferret