Ferret to the Rescue/ Furry pet recruited by Space Command for

0 Comments | Gazette, The (Colorado Springs), Oct 2, 1999 | by John Diedrich

U.S. Space Command has billion-dollar satellites orbiting the Earth, computers that can calculate in a blink of the eye and windowless buildings holding top secrets.

But when a problem arose in May at the command's new year 2000 missile warning center at Peterson Air Force Base, the military didn't call on an engineer or a computer wonk or even a colonel.

It drafted Misty the ferret.

Ferrets, a member of the polecat family and once famous for hunting rats and rabbits, today are more likely to be pets.

Misty belongs to Lt. Col. Randy Blaisdell, who supervised the building of the Y2K center, where a joint Russian-American missile- watching team will try to ensure the world doesn't blow up on New Year's Eve.

To connect computers at the center, additional wires had to be run through 40-foot-long narrow pipes, called conduits, under the floor. The job would have driven a human loopy - and taken days. The pipes already contained wires, so the new ones would likely get hung up.

Blaisdell recalled that ferrets were used to wire World War II- era airplanes. Misty, it seemed, would be the perfect recruit for this Space Command mission.

The wire was too heavy for Misty, who weighs just a pound, to pull through the conduit. So Blaisdell improvised again.

He tied a piece of yarn around the ferret's midsection. The animal crawled through the conduit, towing the yarn behind her.

Then the loose end was tied around the wires and they were pulled through the conduit.

Misty made several trips, and her work was done in an hour.

Misty, the Blaisdells' pet for six years, didn't need any special training.

At home, she spends her time climbing through a drier hose, in and out of tube socks and under doors.

But the ferret had an incentive to wire Space Command.

She was lured through the conduit by the promise of strawberry Pop Tarts, her favorite treat.

"She really enjoys going through the conduits," Blaisdell said. "And she definitely works cheap."

- John Diedrich covers military affairs and may be reached at 636- 0110 or diedrich@gazette.com

Story editor Cliff Foster; Headline by Sarah Marquardt

@CUTLINE: Joseph John Kotlowski/The Gazette - Lt. Col. Randy Blaisdell on Thursday holds his pet ferret, Misty, who helped wire the Y2K missile center at Peterson Air Force Base. Misty crawled through long, narrow pipes and was rewarded with Pop Tarts.