Weasely War Dance

A new friend recently e-mailed me and when I replied, I forgot that I still have my sender I.D. filled in as 'Dances With Ferrets'. She sent a reply asking what the name meant. It is a cute story, so I'm reposting my response to her query here:

It is a humorous modification of the title of the movie 'Dances With Wolves' ...an early-90s movie starring Kevin Costner... there is information about it here if you are curious: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dances_with_Wolves . Costner's character receives the name after some of the local indians whom he befriended observed him playing a sort of tagging and wrestling game with some
wolves whom he had tamed.

I used to have a couple of pet ferrets and when one is teasing them with a toy (much as you would with a cat), it gets them all wound up and they do a sort of signature energetic sideways 'waltz' that some refer to as the 'weasely war dance'. Anyhow, to make a long story short, it was a name that I got dubbed with back in the early 90s because I had pet ferrets and I would frequently play with them, getting them all wound up and bouncing around... we would take turns chasing each other. One of my siblings (my older sister I think) jokingly called me 'Dances With Ferrets' and the nick-name stuck for a little while.

So I just found a video on YouTube for any of you who are keen to see what the classic 'weasely war dance' looks like. Just plain cute!


Oh, and here's another video that I think captures the typical ferret personality to a T.