"Ferret" / "Weasel"

       A hand-printed sign left me wondering:  "Reward for Ferret (Weasel)," plus a phone number.  I didn't know such animals were being kept in California.  Was a ferret really the same as a weasel? 

       A ferret is a weasel, a weasel is a ferret, and apparently it takes one to know the difference.

       Now if a ferret has escaped, how do you "ferret out" a ferret?  This thing has "weaseled" its way out of its owner's confines.  "Weasel"'s obscure origin has implications of theft.  From the weasel's habit of sucking the contents out of an egg, Theodore Roosevelt invented the term "weasel-words," words which steal the force of a statement by purposely making it vague.

       And what if we try to ferret out the word "ferret"?  It goes back to Latin fer, "thief," from which we also get "furtive." 

       I hope this hasn't been too many weasel words.  It's tough ferreting out these things.  But do please note we owe a lot to the animals for clarifying our human behavior.