Howard Davis expressed some concern for the ferret owner's role in the life of
their pet.  I, too, feel strongly that pet owners role in their pet's life can
be God-like, at least as far as determining outcomes for the pet.
 
Although I wasn't outraged, I, too, wondered why V. was even hesitating to get
the best for the ferret tha is available.  Sometimes, I wonder how people judge
what pattern of positive/negative re-inforcement is appropriate to teach your
ferret tricks, in that some patterns can be dangerous or deleterious.
 
I feel strongly that we all need to remember that environmental forces taught
us humans tricks, to the extent that some of us who  weren't strong enough (uh,
kineto-aerobically, endocrinally - or smart enough or lucky enough) suffered
some deleterious circumstance or death.  Remember that, when you make choices
about your ferret's physical environment, nutrition and activities.
 
Of course, trying to take a God's-eye view of your ferrets life has its prat-
falls, too : we all are ignorant to some extent; and it can be easy to forget
that your pet has a life and existence and a conscience and an agenda of its
own (it probably wants to be comfortable, wants to eat, and to do ferret things
of the sort that are not intended to amuse the pet owner); also, there are
accidents.
 
I have made mistakes.  My mistake involved a hamster (I am not in a position to
care for a ferret yet).  Late one evening the hamster was comatosely sleeping
past his usual hour; when he finally moved, he was very wobbly and feeble.  I
picked him up, and his feet were very cold, and in the 36-odd hours since I had
last seen him, his fur had become very matted and his ears a very dark gray, &
there were equally gray rings around his nostrils; I could see his ribs under
his fur. He was irritated that I picked him up, and bit, but was so weak that
the bite amounted to bracketing my fingers in his teeth.
 
My girl-friend's understatement about the situation was "He sure looks like he
doesn't feel too good."
 
I tried to warm him up inside my shirt while we looked up symptoms in a refer-
ence about hamsters.  He only ate or drank a little by the time we were sure
there was nothing we could do, and at about the sixty hour mark, the vet said
she felt something hard in his stomach, treated him as best she could, and said
he wasn't likely to live much longer.
 
In the next twenty four hours, we tried to re-hydrate him with Gatorade. He
managed a bowel movement after about four, and over the next eighteen, he
became more feeble, finally slipping into comatose sleep, and his breathing
simply faded until it was imperceptible, and then he went cold.
 
I was wondering the whole time how it was that so much suffering could take
place in such a small package as a hamster's body.  When we took the hamster
out to bury him in a small meadow, I came upon four baby squirrels.
 
They were hairless and gray and their eyes hadn't even opened.  They were all
dead, with a tiny trickle of blood coming from their little teat-receptacle
mouths.  I looked up to see that the last two weeks of rain had water-logged
the nest their mother built for them, and it had fallen apart or been shaken
apart by the wind, dropping them perhaps 50 feet, where they were killed.
 
And things like this happen every day to wild animals or pets, be they hamsters
or wild baby squirrels or maybe someday your current ferret or my future
ferret or a member of your family or my family.
 
One point of the story here is that, with the hamster, I was perhaps mistaken
for hoping that the malady could be treated and thereby prolonging some very
real agony.  Another point of the story is that death is stark, but still very
much a part of life (remember that as you handle your pets!).  And the last
point is really an epilogue.
 
I have since learned that rodents (including hansters) don't live long in the
wild - they are almost always gobbled up by something else before they can
starve or painfully succumb to intestinal blockages or tumors.  So then the
question is, who are we to domesticate anything, especially if it means
changing the environment they live in, in a way that potentially leads to
some serious suffering (like blockages and tumors in hamsters - or ferrets)?
I mean, is the mistake owning a pet at all?
 
Perhaps.  But all of us who love ferrets can at least learn as much as possible
about these pets.  We should each then spend as much time as we are able in
order to bring that knowledge to bear on influencing ferrets' fates to be as
full and happy and healthy and active as we know how (but don't let ignorance
surprise you!).
 
At least V. andthe tricksters are reading FML.  And at least Howard Davis is,
too. I, for one, am glad to see it all.
 
Al 'the Weasel' Horne
 
[Posted in FML issue 0746]