I used to be curator of a children's museum and we had a colony of 20-30
ferrets we used when we led tours of adults and school kids through the
museum. We always had young ferrets of all ages, so it was a fun and a great
way to demonstrate mustelids to the public.
    One of the things I  was always curious about was to see how the
different people were affected by ferret musk. I had already noticed some
staff people were enormously bothered by "those stinking animals," while
others barely smelled them or didn't smell anything at all.
    I would take a ferret around to each person on the tour and ask them to
pet the ferret and then hold their hands into the air. Then I would stand
back and tell them to smell their hands. The percentages, with rare
exception, were always the same. About half would make all sorts of disgusted
sounds (YUCK, P.U., etc.), a quarter would say they smelled nothing, and the
other quarter would say they could just barely smell a faint but pleasant
"sweetish" smell. I figure I tested this on around 20,000 kids over a 12 year
period.
    Tammy ... my guess is your dad would fall under that first half. It's not
his fault, he's just extremely sensitive to that musk. Try having him slap a
little of his shaving lotion on his face before he goes near the ferret's
room. Or a dab of Vick's under his nose, or menthalatum. Anything to deaden
his smeller. Eventually, maybe he won't notice them any more.
    But be prepared for him to keep hating it. I have a friend who gets
violently ill when she gets anywhere near one of those wonderful little
characters. (P.S. Thanks for stirring up a lot of fond memories of "The Good
Old Days." I miss my little pals, especially a little lady named Isabelle who
started giving birth in my lab coat pocket. You haven't lived until you've
had eight 4-inch baby ferrets scurring up and down the inside of your shirt
sleeves and napping in your pockets!)
 
[Posted in FML issue 0864]