Ooops! I just found out that the little mink that someone found and wrote to me about is not, as originally thought, a handsome young man but is a beautiful young lady
On April 10 I had an email from a lady in Louisiana who was given a tiny little animal by someone who found it, and she asked me what sort of animal I thought it might be. She thought it was a strange type of ferret but when she mentioned the white chin, I realised it was a mink.
The lady wrote about the mink’s progress and then on May 11, she advised that she’d had to surrender the mink to Zoo Zoom as she decided it would be fairer on the mink to be looked after properly.
Lori & Brett Matte wrote to say that Sebastian, as they named the mink, had settled in happily and was doing fine but after a while, I was wondering how he was getting on. I wrote to Lori the other day and got a reply back, together with photos.
Sebastian is now Saaby and Lori said she’s full of energy and is great fun, a real star at Zoo Zoom. Apparently she won’t eat kibble, she just chows down on boiled chicken wings and raw ground meat and she lives in a big enclosure.
Lori was saying it was quite hard to get a good photo of Saaby, as she’s so quick when awake, but she sent two pictures which show how much Saaby has grown since that photo taken on May 11.
Have you noticed Saaby’s slightly webbed feet in the left-hand picture? Obviously being semi-aquatic, the minks need the webbing to get them moving in the water.
If I had to pick another mustelid other than a ferret to fall madly in love with, it would definitely be an ermine!
I was watching this video clip and thought how great it’d be to be able to have a pet like that. I’ve always been fascinated at how big ermines’ eyes seem to be — way bigger than a black-eyed white’s eyes. And that sweet little dark nose! At least this one didn’t have a tree growing out of the top of its head – hahaha!
I was trying to find something about Japanese ferret vets and while wandering through a number of sites, I came across this YouTube video.
I thought it was so adorable, I had to share it.
If I have my facts right, it’s an introduction clip for a TV show called “Shiawase Sou no Okojo-san” and is a “gag anime in which absurdity is the main feature of the story”.
Anime is the Japanese shortened version for “animation” and the show is about Haruka Tsuchiya, a plain and simple university student who has a pet by the name of Okojo-san.
As the synopsis explains, “Okojo-san was actually born in one of the mountains in the North and brought to one of the pet shops to be sold. Determined to get out of the pet shop, Okojo-san formulated an escape strategy and ended up in the house of Haruka. There are always funny and strange occurances happening around the two, be it the people or animals who are near them.“
It also said that … ‘What Tsuchiya-chan calls “オコジョ” (“okojo”) is a Stoat (Wiki). The sub-species of ‘Ezo Stoat’ (or white marten) is indigenous to the Hokkaidō region of Japan. The character string (or word) “しあわせ” is the kana sound pattern for “shiawase”, which means “happiness; good fortune; luck; blessing”.’
I was enthralled watching that little ermine on the clip – what a stunning little animal. It reminded me of my BEW Kaos but, of course, her nose was pink and not dark like this one.
It’s one thing to see photos of ermines but something else entirely to see it moving around but I haven’t managed to work out why Okojo-san has a tree growing out of the top of his head! I would be most grateful to be enlightened, if anyone can tell me the reason
How great if Aussie cartoonists would do something like that for our kids’ shows, then maybe that would dispel the idea of these delightful creatures and their cousins (weasels, ferrets, etc) being blood-thirsty, evil carnivores!
Have you noticed Saaby’s slightly webbed feet in the left-hand picture? Obviously being semi-aquatic, the minks need the webbing to get them moving in the water.
