I was glad to see the explanation of why the ferret eating the chicken had
its mouth bleed, but sad to see that it was given as if the individual felt
he had to justify mentioning the incident.  Knowing that Bob was NOT upset
by the original letter, I had to wonder if others were and made the poster
aware.  Bob took NO offence at the occurrence; I know because I gave him a
"heads-up" on the letter since he's so busy.  Actually, ANYONE in the
sciences HAS to learn to deal with multiple viewpoints and evidence of all
sorts.  Reasonable challenges aren't upsetting because they tend to lead to
refinements, and I can tell you that from his reply to my alert that Bob
was not even the least tiny bit upset about the report being made; he was
curious for further details for his records (details which fortunately
appeared in the later letter).  My suspicion (after multiple conversations
over the years, and from knowing how discussions in the sciences progress)
is that he likely would have been upset if anyone thought that he or she
could not be frank enough in response so that learning could take place.
Anyone in such a field will have stories about marvelous and invigorating
conversations which left all participants glowing, but which were viewed
by outsiders as being "confrontational" or "argumentative" simply because
folks liked to really get their teeth into the subject matter and had been
taught over years to do exactly that with problems.  It's sort of like the
business types having their own codes sometimes for how to dress and who
sits where -- an occupational norm which is anticipated and enjoyed.  Empty
criticisms wouldn't be appreciated (at all), of course, but information
which can lead to compiling some nice hard data or making refinements,
and intelligent arguments which lead to clearer thinking are treats.  So,
anyway, I just hope that no one jumped on the gent for mentioning that the
bleeding happened in that situation.  Bob's bigger than that; folks have to
be in his profession.  ('Course, he wouldn't say that for modesty's sake.)
 
I can personally see how a strand of muscle or some other types of soft
tissue could cause gum cutting, but not fat.  If it actually was fat
perhaps it would be wise to check the gum health of the ferret.  Cheweasels
might help improve that, but it may be that tartar scraping is needed.
[Posted in FML issue 2659]