McPantserton posted:

Watrick posted:

http://highlandvalley.tumblr.com/post/135016624364

I can't imbed the video, but I think these dudes are civets, which are related to raccoons.

quote:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ring-tailed_cat#Domestication

The ringtail is said to be easily tamed, and can make an affectionate pet and effective mouser. Miners and settlers once kept pet ringtails to keep their cabins free of vermin; hence, the common name of "miner's cat" (though in fact the ringtail is no more a cat than it is civet).[13] The ringtails would move into the miners' and settlers' encampments and become accepted by humans in much the same way that some early domestic cats were theorized to have done. At least one biologist in Oregon[who?] has joked that the ringtail is one of two species – the domestic cat and the ringtail – that thus "domesticated humans" due to that pattern of behavior.

Often a hole was cut in a small box and placed near a heat source (perhaps a stove) as a dark, warm place for the animal to sleep during the day, coming out after dark to rid the cabin of mice.