>White house tabbys, horses, and cows are all common
>bill and diane killian
 
Gee Bill,  I heard about SOCKS..  but I didn't realize the Clintons kept
horses and cows too...   :)
 
>.........I'm confused, because I thought the original color of the ferret
>was white/albino and it was the mixing of ferrets with European polecats
>that caused the sable ferrets.**
 
This is a myth perpetuated by the long defunct IFA, et.  al... I bet you
have one of those old IFA ferret color charts, cute but unscientific..
 
The ferret IS a polecat in all respects except it's having been
domesticated.
 
White polecats may indeed have been preferred and called 'ferrets' because
of their usage in hunting or 'ferreting', lending an ounce of credibility to
that myth.  Keepers may have bred their albinos and repeatedly gotten white
litters.
 
The critter once commonly called ferret, may have returned to it's more
natural color distribution by breeding with the critter called polecat,
which was in fact its own species, only separated by common name and use for
some time.  The myth, while scientifically wrong, is not without
explanation.
 
Mutation is mother natures way of rolling the dice.... if a new mutation is
a good thing, it succeeds, else the process of natural selection makes it
rare.
 
The proliferation of albino ferrets, which would be unnatural and unlikely,
is the result of the meddling of MAN in the business of nature.
 
The natural color of polecats is <like a sable ferret>because it's
effectiveness as a camoflauge made it predominant over zillions of years.
The less suitable colors were rewarded with short lives.
 
No references or proof are offerred, as this is merely a considered opinion.
Given the current trend toward revising history and replacing the books, my
opinion is as good as the textbook du jour anyway, at least it isn't under
revision today.
 
Bob
[Posted in FML issue 1910]