I sought out PROVEN ages (ones with a paper record) in the distant past
and the oldest I found was 14 years.  I know of a vet who has since found
another proven 14 years old one and a proven 15 years old one.  Wish I
could recall which vet it was, but off-hand I can't.  These were in a vet
text of a veterinary paper.  I ran into a LOT of claims older ones, NONE
of which panned out on checking, and a number of claims of long-lived
lines, only two of which panned out and neither line exists now.  There
was someone early on in ferret genetics who claimed to have a long-lived
marked-white line who was following the line for longer before saying
more and I haven't heard anything more on that which is too bad because
i really, really had hopes...
 
>From:    Heather Wojtowicz
>Subject: Folks are still mad, but the value of the "olive branch" could
>        also make a very positive statement for ferret folks
 ...
>If we refuse to acknowledge or accept a very public apology that was
>coupled with the positive images of the human interacting with the
>ferret, we risk becoming the irrational, unforgiving, crazy people that
>we're already reputed to be.  More importantly, if we insist on sticking
>to the negative and refuse to acknowledge the positive aspects of this
>public, high-profile apology and subsequent efforts made to cast ferrets
>in a positive light, we risk being no better than all the people and
>organizations who have refused to offer the ferret community an apology
>when it was well-deserved and needed, or retract their harmful remarks
>or attitudes, and I KNOW that we are better than those cads...
 
Bravo!  Logical, and designed to win allies instead of burning some
bridges which we may need in the future to help ferrets.  Excellently
expressed common sense, Heather!  What we need for the best progress is
respect, not the sort of fear which we might give to a street wandering
obscenity babbling razor bearer who hasn't bathed in months... The best
way to get respect is to EARN it by being logical and polite.  Throughout
history (including U.S.  history) the most respected attempts made
typically began as constructive moves toward social evolution.  When
those don't work it at times it paid to move to revolution or other
strong approaches.  What would be down-right silly would be not
recognizing victory when it is right there in front of us and as a result
failing to use that victory in a constructive way.  We have victory, now
let's work politely and constructively on getting an ally to make it an
even larger victory.  Even if that can't be done there is nothing to be
gained (and a lot to be lost) by gaining the reputation of being a
pathologically insane group of people which is how we will be thought of
if we don't behave within socially acceptable norms.  Enough "thank yous"
will offset the other messages.
 
Anyone have the addy for the Conan Show handy for a thank you letter?
 
If I recall right didn't Sean Connery have a horse break his leg on
one film?  He knew enough to be silent about it.  It's just another
generation's time to learn that you don't attack family members of your
potential public, whether they have two feet or four, and it seems that
the lesson has been learned by Mr. Stiller which is progress that needs
to be acknowledged.  Besides, even if you don't thank him there is a lot
that is good to say about at least thanking those shows which facilitated
the apologies and showed ferrets in good light: the Today Show and the
Conan Show.
[Posted in FML issue 4396]