I just returned from a conference in Hawaii, and I saw wild mongooses
while I was there. They were introduced in an effort to control some other
animal (I think a type of rat) and no one bothered to figure out that
mongooses are diurnal, and the animal that was the intended prey was
nocturnal. Anyway, it is really striking to see something run across the
road or through a field with that ferret-like motion. They are larger and
more of a plain brown. The people I talked to hated them- they prey on
some of the native birds, including the Hawaiian nene (a goose). Anyway,
thought people might find that interesting. My girls were pleased at my
return. Persephone never kisses my husband; she's definitely a momma's
girl. She licked me all over my face when I picked her up.
  On winter coats: Persephone is out of sync. She had a winter coat all
summer, now she once again has her light coat. Of course, winter in Oregon
is not dreadfully cold- though damp-- and she isn't outside hardly at all.
Pandora is beautiful--long white fur-- a real glamour girl of a silver
mitt.  We visualize her lolling in a divan made of old socks, spearing
raisins with one dainty claw extended and reading trashy novels.  When we
got her from the shelter, she had been spayed recently and a tumor removed
from her back. Her belly was bare, and the back scar was noticeable. One
of the reasons we adopted her (besides the fact that she and Persephone
hit it off well from first sniff) was that we figured she would be hard to
place (an adult and not really attractive). We have really have been
surprised by her transformation from Ugly Ferretling into the Swan of
Silver Mitts.
 Paula
 
[Posted in FML issue 0662]