Sorry for breaking the silence but the bribes ran out.  Actually, I've been
taking it easy to rest up for the next month-o-fun.
 
We have postponed the surgery on Sandy for a couple of weeks because of a
sudden vaginal infection.  She is on antibiotics for the next ten days, and
if all cleared up, then we will cut.  The infection came on in a matter of
hours, or so it seems, but was caught very early and shouldn't be a problem.
The poor little sweetie now recognizes the vet office and vet, and today
started dooking around, then wardanced after the temperature thingie (YOU
know).
 
For those who care, we moved Elizabeth into her own place today.  I wanted
to give her a ferret as a housewarming gift, but that will have to wait for
a while; like after she coughs up the $500 pet deposit.  I gave her one of
my favorite bonsai trees instead; a 20-year-old California live oak.  If she
kills it, she will die--she is already on my death list because of her big
mouth regarding peppers so I wouldn't care much.  And Bill Killian's
engimatic comments yesterday left me wondering if something isn't going on
behind the scenes.  You will pay, Lizardbreath!
 
I leave Saturday for the month-o-fun and people are so glad I'll be off the
FML they are throwing a party that I plan on crashing.  But you all forget I
bought a 56K modem and can still blaze my way to the list with a single
phonecall.  Har Har Har.  Better send in the bribes again.
 
Q: (Private Post) "You once mentioned one of the reasons you didn't think
ferrets were domesticated in Egypt was because of a lack of fossils.  Are
there any ferret fossils anywhere else?"
 
A: Sure; but don't let my graying hair fool you.  I'm not as desiccated as I
look, and if you say it again, I'll tell my mummy.
 
Ferret remains are very limited; most confirmed ferret remains are of a
recent nature; last century or so.  There are a couple older that have been
discribed in print, and I am aware of several more that are yet to be
discribed.  But knowing the remains are a ferret or not really doesn't
matter, because since ferrets are domesticated polecats, having polecat
remains demonstrates the potiential for domestication.  In other words,
ferrets could have been domesticated anywhere you can find polecat remains,
but not where there are no such remains.
 
While ferret remains older than a century or so are rare, polecat remains
have been found in quantity.  They were found in Britain more than a century
ago during the great cave explorations of the mid-1800s, described by such
greats as Owens, Lubbock, Lyell and Flower.  Several thousands-of-year-old
polecats and black-footed ferrets mummies have been found in Alaska and
Northwest Canada.  One mummy of a BFF is so well preserved, it looks like a
sleeping fert; well, maybe one that has lost its hair and is almost
40,000-years-old.
 
The bottom line is, the remains of polecats (and BFFs) are found through out
the USA/Canada, Northern Eurasia, and Northern Europe down towards the
Mediterranean.  Kirten reported polecat remains in mountain caves in the
Lebaneese-Palestine area, but did not describe them in published works.
None have been found in Egypt, the Sinai, Israel, nor the surrounding areas.
None.
 
This begs the question: how can you domesticate something that isn't found
in your area?  Fossils of wild and domesticated forms of cats, dogs, horse,
sheep, goats, cows, etc., are found in the areas where they were
domesticated; why not in Egypt?  I think the "African Ferret" theory has
about as much reality to it as me being good-looking.  Yep.  Sure.  Yep.
 
Bob C and the 17 Playful Polywoggers
[Posted in FML issue 1986]