Now people, let's not get carried away with the "MY ferret doesn't bite"
thing.  It was a generalization.  Even some people who said "my present
ferret NEVER bites", went on to recall one who did.
 
Bite is a relative term.  My ferrets never bite either.  But yesterday I had
2 sets of dents, delivered in rapid successon by my baby angora who mistook
my hand for more of the guy who was chomping on his neck.  He looked
embarrased when he realized I wasn't the other ferret, but my hand smarted
for an hour.  Then there's Burnie, who will probably always bypass the
dangled toy and try to skewer my hand.  Yet Burnie never tries to bite when
being held.  Kouri is my jealous ferret.  He chases the other ferrets away
from me, including Mr. Percy!  Just ran right onto his lap and nipped him on
the wrist.  Did I say my ferrets never bite?  Honest, my little Wellington
NEVER bites!
 
What about all those ankle nippers?  All they want is to be played with.
Those aren't bites, well actually they are, but... And how about the lick,
lick, chomps.  Are they, or are they aren't?
 
What we lovingly call play-nips, dents, and lick-chomps, the rest of the
world calls FERRET BITES!  In case anyone has forgotten, they call tooth
snags, in which the ferret never moved his mouth, bites too!
 
Things bite.  Lots of legal animals bite, it's generally not a condition for
which they will be declared illegal.  Ferrets were made illegal in Calif.
by a fluke, not because people thought they were an excessively biting pet.
To pretend that ferrets don't ever bite, nip, or whatever, is silly.  We
want ferrets legal everywhere, just the way they are.
 
Georgia
[Posted in FML issue 2188]