The Easter Ferret
Posted by schoolspirit on 19 March, 2008
We held our annual Easter Fair this afternoon and one of the activities our grade organised and ran was what has become my staple Easter Fair event, Whack-a-ferret. In this case the burrow is a dirty great piece of white polypipe with a bend at the bottom, the kid waiting at the end is holding aloft a little wooden mallet to belt the snot out of the ferret as it comes out of the pipe, and the ferret itself is a soft yellow ball with eyes, whiskers and a tail drawn on in permanent texta. If they manage to whack the ferret on the way past they win a little solid Easter egg. If they don’t, then they’ve donated 20c (or three turns for 50c!) and generally come back to try again later and give us more money.
Nothing all that dastardly, eh? Nothing really dangerous except maybe a squashed finger if anybody nearby isn’t paying attention. It’s not like it’s a real ferret, eh?
Which is what turned up today.
Yup. While dropping our ferret down the polypipe and watching kids belt the life out of the asphalt as it rolled past, a mother held a real ferret down where I could see (on a leash with a little seat-belt harness, naturally…) and with a grin suggested they were here to protest the unfair treatment of ferrets. I thought nothing much more of it and gave a friendly chuckle while wondering why you would bother bringing what is basically a hairy snake with legs to a primary school anyway.
At least, until the cunning little blighter bit one of my kids…
Yup. It’s not everyday you write up a sick-bay incident report when the incident involves a kid getting bitten by a ferret. What more could I do than get him to clean the blood away and whack a bandaid on?
Fortunately, Mum was quite okay with the whole deal when I approached her with the story at the end of the day. Turns out they actually see this woman every now and then walking her ferrets down the street! It was only last night when they joked that he’d be coming to school to help run Whack-a-ferret and wouldn’t it be funny if a real one bit him. He’ll get a proper clean with some Dettol or something tonight and she’ll let me know if it causes any more trouble, so I’m appreciative of her good humour and understanding.
But honestly… bringing a ferret to an Easter Fair…
At least I can add that to my list of ’strangest things I’ve had to tell parents’, eh?
Related Posts: The Ferret Song
March 19th, 2008 at 7:59 pm
Good Lord!
And I thought it was odd that people brought dogs that were not on leads to our Kindergarten Garage Sale last weekend.
Ferret beats that, even if it was on a lead.
March 19th, 2008 at 9:09 pm
I reckon the great irony in the whole deal is that the ferret WAS on a lead… and the kid STILL got bitten!
Thanks for the comment.
March 22nd, 2008 at 12:40 pm
How funny! I had to laugh when you described the ferret as a “hairy snake with legs”…that is so true! lol!
March 22nd, 2008 at 1:48 pm
My Jack Russell terrier came to school one day. The Stage 1 students were researching dogs, and we found a reference in a writing guide to improving factual information reports by interviewing “an expert in the field”, so they got to study Jack up close, and ask lots of questions.
Jack was in his element, surround by all the attention. He got to visit four Stage 1 English classes, too. And even a Mathematics lesson.
March 22nd, 2008 at 2:12 pm
Heh. Jack Russells are brilliant!
And yes, I thought a ‘hairy snake with legs’ was an apt description too. Cunning little blighters…