This Thursday evening, we went to our local club's meeting in
south Stockholm, and for once there were lots of ferrets there,
whom were let run loose on the floor. As expected, the first
thing that happened when Alison was let out, was that she
attacked the nearest male. He did not smell nice after that, and
we didn't let her down for the next 15 min or so. Natasja had a
few brief wrestling matches but mostly was friendly with the
other ferrets.
 
When Alison was let down again, she wasn't quite as violent, but
of course had to try out them all, and see who was strongest,
them or her. My plan was she would learn a lesson, but as usual
none of them could get a grip on her, so if she learned anything,
it was the opposite of what I intended. At least it became
nonviolent pretty soon.
 
Alison and Natasja are usually the largest females at 0.83 and
0.88 kg, but this time a couple brought an even larger one (or so
they claimed; I still think the shape of the head was wrong).
Apart from a small number of tiny females, there were a dozen
males there, all in the 2-3 kg range. I'm almost starting to
suspect there are two different kinds of ferrets here, who
differ mainly in the level of sexual dimorphism: My girls' father
and brothers were small at around 1.2 kg, their sisters and
mother large at around 0.8 kg -- which is a pattern we've seen a
few other times; Most others follow a pattern of females <0.7 kg
and males of 2.5 kg or so.
 
We brought one of the males too when we left. He had been found
outdoors someplace, and no owner reporting him missing. The place
he was staying waiting to be placed with someone has two rather
aggressive females who doesn't like him much, so I thought it was
easy to get him. My mother (who may be more observant) says lots
of people there thought him cute and wanted him. He'll stay with
my parents until we can let all three of them together
unsupervised (if ever). He weighs more than 2.3 kg, and probably
less than 2.5. I'll let you know how it goes.
--
 Urban Fredriksson  [log in to unmask]
 
[Posted in FML issue 0632]