King of the ferret leggers: This is the fifth story in a weekly series that is appearing in the Citizen sports section to mark the turn of the century. Some of the classic sports stories from the past will be reprinted every Tuesday until the new year. This story by American writer Donald Katz first appeared in Outside magazine in the February-March 1983 edition. It was reprinted in Harper's magazine in 1992. The piece appeared again in the 1997 book, The Best of Outside. Series: Year 2000 Final Edition

• Published in: The Ottawa citizen (1986)
• Main Author: Katz, Donald R
• Format: Newspaper Article
• Language: English
• Published: Ottawa, Ont Postmedia Network Inc 05.10.1999
• ISSN: 0839-3222

Loyal to nothing that lives, the ferret has only one characteristic that might be deemed positive -- a tenacious, single- minded belief in finishing whatever it starts. That usually entails biting off whatever it bites. The rules of ferret-legging do allow the leggers to try to knock the ferret off a spot it's biting (from inside the trousers only), but that is no small matter, as ferrets never let go. No less a source than the Encyclopedia Britannica suggests that you can get a ferret to let go by pressing a certain spot over its eye, but [Reg Mellor] and the other ferret specialists I talked to all say that is absurd. Reg favours a large screwdriver to get a ferret off his finger. Another ferret-legger told me that a ferret that had almost dislodged his left thumb let go only after the ferret and the man's thumb were held under scalding tap water -- for 10 minutes. Reg says he observed with wonder the growing popularity of ferret- legging throughout the '70s. He had been hunting with ferrets in the verdant moors and dales outside of Barnsley for much of a century. Since a cold and wet ferret exterminates with a less enthusiasm than a dry one, Reg used to keep his ferrets in his pants for hours when he hunted in the rain -- and it always rained where he hunted. One of the ferrets in Reg's pants finally poked its nose into daylight before any major damage was done, and Reg pulled the other ferret out. We all went across the road to the local pub, where everyone but Reg had a drink to calm the nerves. Reg doesn't drink. Bad for his health, he said. Reg said he had been coaxed out of retirement recently and intends to break six -- "maybe even eight" - - hours within the year.