Ferret saved from sewer

A stray ferret is safe and sound after a lengthy but successful rescue attempt from a sewer in the west end.

Tracy Ewasiuk said her 12-year-old daughter, Jade, ran home to tell her about the trapped animal around 5:30 p.m. Tuesday.

A group of kids had discovered the ferret while playing in the grassy courtyard behind the Cambridge West Apartments at 166 Street and 88 Avenue.

Ewasiuk attempted to retrieve the frightened ferret herself but when the manhole cover wouldn't budge, she called Animal Control.

Her daughters also tried - unsuccessfully - to lure the little guy out with a carrot tied to a piece of wool.

"He was pretty hungry," she said, adding that she and her daughters threw him pieces of tuna until Animal Control officers arrived.

It took a sledgehammer and a pickaxe to finally remove the stubborn manhole cover, said Ewasiuk. Once it was off, Animal Control looped a retrieval device under the ferrets' armpits and lifted him to safety.

"He looked a little worse for wear," said Ewasiuk, who heard from a neighbourhood boy that the ferret had been in the sewer for a couple of days.

Ewasiuk added that until recently there had been signs posted around the apartment complex about a lost ferret.