Hello.
 
Might as well introduce myself.  My name is Fara Shimbo and I am currently
the editor of THE WEASEL HELP MONTHLY, and the director of the Office of
Information Services for the Ferret Unity & Registration Org. Inc.  Anyone
out there who'd like to see a copy of the WHQ send me your addresses and
I'll send a spec copy out.  I am also the author of The Ferret Book (now
out of print) and The Ferret Fancier's Sourcebook, which is now in press
and should be available by the end of the summer.  I've owned ferrets for
eleven years and work as rehabilitor for Colorado Ferret Rescue.
 
Nacy Hartman, re: males stinking... The reason the males really, REALLY
stink is that they groom themselves with their urine to attract jills.
To this day, I've never met a jill that's attracted to that smell.  Once
the hob becomes a gib (is neutered), this behavior stops within a week.
Descenting has nothing to do with how a ferret actually smells; it's just
done to produce a convenience product for the mass market, or sometimes
to cure chronically impacted anal glands.
   I have also owned a father and son who did NOT stink.  It is possible
to breed the smell out of them (for example, the worst ferret doesn'
smell half as bad as a mink...)
 
Anyway, for all you information junkies out there, the Info Office has a
list of over 1200 technical articles, product brochures and such available
upon request (the list and those of the articles we can copy without
violating anyone's copyright).  We also are trying to compile a lists of:
* places where ferrets are illegal (on the city and county level -- we
  have the states covered),
* all the private ferret shelters in the country (right now I know of
  about 20 in various states),
* all the ferret clubs in the country (it's good for people who move with
  their ferrets, so they can get good advice on which vets to see and
  which to avoid, and so on).
If you folks know of any of such, I'd grovel to have same info.
--Take care,
Fa
                                                                          
[Posted in FML 0138]