Mr. Edward Lipinski,
Sir I'm beginning to wonder as to the state of some of the ferrets in
your care! You speak of ferrets in cages possibly killing each other,
then taking two days to devour the victim. Now you speak of thirsty
ferrets sniffing desperately for a water source. While some of your
presentations are intriguing to read, albeit a bit like traveling a
twisting mountain goat trail; the stories can be entertaining to say
the least.
Are you perhaps a bit like Dr. Frankenstein and subjecting your ferrets
to personal experiments under the guise of doing good for greater
ferret-kind? Please say it ain't so!
Regarding the wondrous schnozz of the ferret, that foremost
protruberence of their anterior; it's a wonderful piece of equipment.
My ferrets can all be piled one on top of each other, noses tucked into
various parts of eachother's bodies, some even into body cavities that
just isn't polite for proper people to think of, let alone observe!
They can all be deep in the midst of "the little death" and not more
than just a pile of flimsy, non-responsive flaps of fur covered skin.
Content in their warmth, secluded from the cares and woes of the rest
of the world. This fur pile occurs most often mined deeply under
several layers of quilts and blankets. The very same material we humans
would happily place over our own noses to shield us from malodorous
attacks.
That ever active, never snoozing schnozz will, without fail, cause
the ferrets to, almost as one, awaken the very instant I open the
refrigerator door! I know it isn't the noise awakening them, because
they do not respond to the alarm clock, and my deaf ferret, Crystal -
will often be the first one to awaken! They will come seemingly from
nowhere the second I open a bag of chips. Whatever new aroma from food
begins to infiltrate our dwelling, they will have smelled it and come
to investigate within mere moments!
I've observed on a couple rare occassions the "flehmen response", where
in order to concentrate and identify strange or faint odors they
crinkle their teeny proboscis, closing the nostrils a bit and curling
their upper lip to concentrate the odor. All motion stopped, all four
paws on the ground, neck outstretched, head tilted back, fangs
gleaming, tip of the tongue protruding between the incisors, eyes
closed to a slit while their brain computes this new scent.
The ferret's sense of smell seems prodigious indeed! I have to chuckle
at the folks who speak of keeping ferrets, say at the vet's office, in
separate rooms so that they can't smell other animnals that may cause
them to become upset. Believ you me, that ferret can smell things we
could never smell and knows what type of animal not only passed by,
but sat stil for a moment regardless of which room they are in!
My Josie girl (may she R.I.P) baing my only ferret at the time, was
treated to daily excursions to all parts of Florida. She could without
fail. lead me back to our truck or motorcycle by following either our
own scent trail, or if we took a different return route, she could
easily identify our vehicle from among the hundreds (sometimes
thousands- during bike week) of others parked and waiting! She was also
a deaf ferret, so it's likely her sense of smell was more hoined than
others. Or it could be that our daily 3 to 6 mile jaunts helped develop
her skills above that of a mere house bound ferret. For whatever reason
she'd happily travel a mile a minute, nose to the ground exploring the
new trails and on the return route would make a beeline to our vehicle.
And yes, she did know our particular vehicle because she would pass by
the strange ones and then stop and sit up at the driver's door or begin
to climb the tire of the motorcycle.
Yes, the ferret's nose is a wondrous marvel! But I've never seen a
ferret desperate to sniff out water - mine all have water available
from several places in the house and remain hydrated.
Cheers,
Kim
please visit :
for ferret help and info:
http://holisticferret.proboards80.com/index.cgi
http://ferretopia.proboards51.com/index.cgi
www.naturalferrets.com
for fun:
www.vanityferret.com (password required: "FerretsRfun")
[Posted in FML 6231]
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