Weasel (Farthing Wood)

Weasel is a fictional character from the animated children's television series The Animals of Farthing Wood based upon the books of the same name by author Colin Dann. She is, as her name suggests, a Weasel.

In the TV Series

While male in the books, Weasel was female in the cartoon.

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An irreverent prankster with a distinctive cackling laugh, Weasel spent much of the journey to White Deer Park getting on the nerves of the other animals. She constantly clashes with Adder. She was frequently seen bursting into out of tune singing and is once asked to sing to Adder to wake the snake up. In the poisoned fields, she tries to start a marching song, to "cheer everyone up", but is silenced by Hare, who points out that she will draw attention to them while they are in the open.

Despite her apparent disregard for the oath (she is often reminded of it when taunting Adder), Weasel is helpful on a number of occasions. When Badger is caught in the river, Weasel bites through the weeds to free him, and then jumps on him to get the water out of his chest. The other animals often see her attempts at help negatively however. She is also encouraging of the smaller animals, such as the Hedgehogs on the motorway, although her calls are often joking in nature: "come on you thorn bushes on legs, you can do it!" ("Between Two Evils")

Weasel is frequently seen getting into trouble. She follows the example of human soldier by attacking a wasp's nest. As a result she is stung on the nose, but her actions cause the wasps to attack the humans, who run away and leave the way clear for the animals. When crossing the motorway, she is the first to set off, but returns to encourage the Rabbits and dances about between the cars. She then dares the other animals to follow her under the cars and plays dead when a lorry passes over her. Once on the grass in the middle, when the a can is thrown from a human car, she throws it back. As a result, more is thrown and she is hit on the head. In contrast to her usual exploits, the other animals find this amusing. Weasel then wanders out into the road, dazed, and has to be rescued by Whistler.

In the church, Weasel is one of the first animals to run in panic, despite Badger's attempt to hold her down. She runs into a pew and frightens one of congregation, who believes her to be a rat. She is then the first to notice the door is open and during the escape she catches the bride's bouquet. Having fled the church, Weasel and Badger end up separated from the main group and run through the streets of the town, until they hide in the a pub cellar. They become trapped together and Weasel finds the situation funny, which infuriates Badger. She then proceeds to drink from a leaking barrel and becomes drunk, slurring happily to Badger how he is her "besht friend". The humans then unload barrels into the cellar and these narrowly miss Badger, but appear to hit Weasel, causing unnecessary concern for Badger, until he finds her safe and drinking again. In the street outside she knocks over a bin and continues to sing until she finally collapses. Owl finds them, thanks to the noise Weasel was making, and Badger carries her back to the others. She then falls asleep, preventing the group from carrying on to the Park.

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In the second season, she meets the love-sick Measly, who falls in love with her. At first, Weasel runs away from him, watched by an amused Owl and Kestrel, but she winds up becoming his reluctant mate. She often shows affection to him, such as a kiss on the cheek, but can be quite unloving to him. When Whistler gives the Farthing Wood meat eaters food, Weasel refuses to allow Measly to have any, despite the fact he had given her a grub earlier.

In the Park, Weasel crossed the villainous Scarface early on and was threatened with violence to help him. Despite trying to deny being one of the Farthing Wood animals, she fails to convince him. On this occasion, Measly causes a distraction and she is able to escape. On a number of occasions she taunts Scarface with chants about Fox and the Farthing animals.

During the harsh winter, Weasel resorts at one point to selling acorns to the Squirrels in exchange for shelter for the night. She is later accused of stealing acorns from the Squirrels, forcing them to go hungry. They pelt her with acorns to punish her for this "joke" and Weasel departs in tears. Fox then takes his anger out on her, upsetting her still further. Following this, Weasel sees Scarface eating Mother Vole, and reveals this to the other animals when Fox stands accused.

A short time after this, Scarface finally corners Weasel, who reveals she saw him eat Mother Vole. When asked if she told anyone, Weasel assures Scarface that she did not, fearing for her life. As a threat, Scarface bites her arm and only lets her go when she promises to spy on the other Farthing animals. As a result of this, she spends most of the time hiding from the other animals, reasoning that if she doesn't know their plans she can't betray them.

Scarface is angry that Weasel did not tell him of the planned farm raid in "New Enemies" and corners while she is sharing a drink with Measly. She claims to have had no knowledge of the raid, which doesn't really help matters. He bites her arm again, when she reveals that she hasn't been near Farthing Land in ages, so couldn't possibly know their plans. When Fox comes up with a plan for getting rid of the poachers, Scarface hears of it from his wife. Scarface instantly goes to find Weasel, to demand why she has not told him. She claims to know nothing and is interrogated about the plan then chased onto the ice of the pond, where she manages to lose him.

At this point, fearing for her life, Weasel goes into hiding, and when she is found by Kestrel she is pretending to be a gorse bush. The fact that she continues to move gives her away. When Kestrel attempts to talk to her Weasel continues to insist that she is a gorse bush, and therefore "no friend" of Kestrel. Kestrel refuses to accept this and Weasel expresses her wish to be left alone. She will not keep watch as Fox has instructed. Despite this, she is seen keeping an eye on the plan as Fox rushes past to divert the poachers and appears to be obeying orders to go keep watch at the pond, albeit while pretending to be a log. She passes Badger on her way and asks for directions. She is later seen cheering when Fox triumphs over the poachers.

Weasel is the only witness to the shooting of a blue fox cub when the poachers return, but falls out of the tree from where she is watching, in front of Scarface. He orders her to take a message to Fox. This leads Fox to question her loyalties.

In the next episode, Weasel comes across Scarface spying on Vixen's cubs outside Fox's earth. She is initially terrified but plucks up the courage to dash past Scarface and warn Vixen of the danger. Weasel tells Vixen that Scarface is lurking in the bushes but by the time Vixen has had a chance to investigate, Scarface appears to have vanished from sight leading Vixen to believe that Weasel was making it up. Weasel insists that she wasn't and storms off crying. However, Vixen later regrets not believing Weasel when Scarface is later seen hiding in the bushes by Owl.

Later, when Dreamer is presumably killed by Scarface, Fox growls at Weasel asking her if she knows anything about what happened. Vixen reminds Fox that Weasel warned them that Scarface was nearby leading Fox to be more lenient with her. Weasel then tells them that she had to go into hiding because Scarface threatened to kill her unless she acted as his spy. Vixen is sympathetic towards her plight but when Weasel says that she almost betrayed them because of their unkindness, Fox turns on her again and Weasel promptly scarpers.

Adder later comes across Weasel when going to alert the animals of Bold's capture at the hands of Scarface. She tells her to go to Fox and tell him what has happened but Weasel refuses, pretending not to have any involment with the Farthing Wood community. Adder thinks that Weasel has lost her marbles. Weasel then bumps into Measly after not seeing him for ages due to the fact that he thought she was bad luck. She is glad to see him again as he is her only real confidant at the time and gives him a hug. Weasel is upset when Measly is initially distant with her and she thinks that he no longer loves her. When Measly protests that he does Weasel replies that if he did then he'd look after her when she was in trouble to which Measly answers that he does love her but he loves himself better and that it is in his nature to run away from trouble because he is a weasel. When all this is over, Weasel turns to him for help, asking him what she should do. Measly responds by saying that it's not his duty to know, he's not like the Great White Stag. This gives Weasel an idea and she tells Measly how brilliant he is. The pair of weasels visit the Great White Stag at The Stone Circle where they infrom him of the trouble that is presently brewing concerning Bold. Weasel tries to explain to him what is going on but as always, ends up argiung with Measly about who should be allowed to tell the story. This leaves The Great White Stag confused and at first he doubts their story. He tells Weasel that the last time he saw her she pretneded to know him but Weasel lies, telling him it was another weasel.

Weasel and Measly are later seen with Fox, Kestrel and The Great White Stag at Scarface's Earth. When it is told that Bold is no longer being held captive, Weasel and Measly pull faces at Scarface and his tribe but the Great White Stag silences them. When the animals return to Fox's Earth, Owl is there, slagging off Weasel and Measly, saying that Weasel is working for Scarface and that her and Measly are to blame for what has happened until Fox informs her that it was Weasel who got the Great White Stag involved. Owl remains unconvinced despite Fox and the other animals praising Weasel and giving her three cheers for her help.

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At the beginning of the third season, she is apparently furious with Measly for something. "What do I need a mate for? Look what you've done to me!" She tells him. It comes as a surprise to Fox, Vixen, Plucky, Dash and, Mossy that she has a "condition", and is "with weasel". It just so happens that she is expecting babies.

After getting chased by Trey, the new tyrant leader of the park, she is frustrated and leaves the park with Measly to have her little one in safety. In a barn miles away from White Deer Park, Weasel has given birth to two little weasels, Cleo and Fido. She makes Measly do all the work in raising them. She yells at Measly for losing them, and compares her "skinny, starving" weasels to the goslings the twins were following, and makes Measly teach them to be weasels, instead of goslings. Because of the twins, the farm animals make the family leave the barn.