Ferret, parakeet on the run

CHITA, Russia, July 18 (UPI) -- The art director of a Russian circus said an at-large ferret suffering from depression is "a terrible glutton, idle to the core."

Zhanna Lazerson, art director of the circus in Chita, said the ferret escaped last week alongside a monkey and a parakeet because all three animals were suffering from depression brought on by recent rains, The Moscow Times reported Monday.

Lazerson said the monkey was found cuddling with a dog shortly after the escape but the parakeet and the ferret, which she described as "a terrible glutton, idle to the core," remain at large.

Lazerson said she examined a ferret found in the street by a Chita resident Friday, but determined the animal was "not our ferret."