>You may be correct about the dog/cat superfamily thing though.  The
>similarities could be superficial and, after all is said and done, all
>species can trace their roots back to the same primordial ooze and those
> of us with spiritual inclinations even further into the Mind/Heart of
>God.
 
I'm afraid she is correct and they are superficial.  It's what's known
as convergent evolution, where animals that want to take advantage of
similar nieches look and act in similar ways.  A popular example is how
similar, physically, dolphins, ichthyosaurs and some sharks all look,
because they're fast, aquatic piscavores.  But one's a mammal, one's a
reptile and the third is a fish.  Mongooses are insectivores that live
in a very similar way to weasels, but generally in areas that there are
few weasels, such as Africa.  One of the big differences is very few
weasels are social in their behavior, but many mongooses are social, such
as the popular suricat or meerkat.  Being underground den animals, using
latrienes comes naturally as a matter of personaly health.One thing I
don't think is similar is in most social mongoose colonies, there is only
one sexually active adult female and male, a 'alpha breeding pair', and
the rest of the family takes care of the offspring, their sexual acitvity
activly supressed.  There is a complex hierarchy of possitions in the
'pack', like a wolf pack.  In social weasels, such as otters, all the
adults are sexually active and there isn't the same drive towards
communial offspring raising by 'lesser' members of the group or hierarchy
building.
 
Ferrets are probably more like cats, social animals within the context of
domestication, than mongooses (or dogs), which are social animals with
strong natural family and pack drives.
[Posted in FML issue 4198]