No, I went looking for fert pics for this thread and found that.
In that first pic above, you'd have to know ferrets to realize that it's actually jumping *sideways* in that shot. Look carefully at his rear feet. It LOOKS like he's jumping for the dog, but he's not, it's a circling move.
Another thing: explore that site, and you'll see some short videos that show what we call the "weasel wardance", a happy hoppy boinging action they do in play and mid-wrestle. When they get serious air like in that first shot above, it's in play.
Mine would play just like that, with each other, cats, people, dogs at the park they just met, whatever
.
BUT the wardance has a serious side. When they're seriously pissed, they do a different version of it that's quite clearly a combat technique, and one hideously effective against dogs. They stay lower, jumping sideways in random patterns while snarling like demons. They're trying to get the dog to lunge, they go sideways then leap straight to the dog's throat so they can lock on with the teeth and start tearing with all four sets of claws like buzz-saws. The dog can't get at 'em under there. THAT is how a fert can really kill an attacking dog.
I've seen aggressive dogs back off when they start the "combat version" of the wardance. None of mine ever had to do the finishing part of the sequence but I've read accounts of what it's like. They go utterly berzerk.
They don't do this without cause, but they sure as hell know what all-out war means. And then once it's over, they revert right back to happy'n'playful with no apparant mental trauma whatsoever, not at ALL like a cat after a mortal fight.
This lack of fear makes them completely outgoing among strangers or new animals, to the utter shock of most folks. They'll hop up into the lap of somebody they've never seen before, roll over on their back and want a belly-rub.
And all this out of something small enough to sleep in a sweatshirt front pocket or smaller.
