We live in the country in Nebraska and several days ago my husband heard this squeaking from our live mouse trap outside our garage. He dumped the contents in a bucket and told me we caught a ground squirrel. I take a look in the bucket and I couldn't believe it, the little guy looks just like a baby ferret. I had ferrets about 10 years ago. In fact he doesn't even care to try and escape, he just curls up and goes to sleep. I bring the bucket inside, get the little guy some water which he drinks a lot of, poor thing was dehydrated and starving. I feed him some ground turkey and some raw chicken which he happily eats. I start researching online and this animal looks like a Least Weasel. It's kind of a miniature ferret. I have lived in Nebraska all my life and only once seen a wild ferret and have never seen a weasel. Long story, short...he is eating like crazy. He is too young to survive without his mom outside. It's winter here, not sure how he even survived this long, according to the web, weasels are born in the spring and have to be adult size by winter to make it through. Not sure what to do with him now...do I keep him until spring then release him and hope he makes it? Will he be too tame by then (he is super friendly and playful)? I feel like he is a wild animal and should stay that way, but then again their life expectancy in the wild is only about a year, so that seems kind of cruel too. He is really liking the maid service here, play time, and sleeping in a fleece blanket. By the way, he acts exactly like a domesticated ferret, same mannerisms, bathroom habits, war dance. He is just much smaller and faster than any ferret. He is brown with a white underbelly and paws. Short tail and his tail is not black like a wild ferret. If you look at videos on youtube, search for Ozzy the weasel, that is exactly what he looks like. And of course I can't get photos uploaded. I will fix this...pics coming shortly. Any ideas...it says file uploaded failed.