Note to NY, NJ, CT ferret owners with Cablevision cable - Tiffany will be
on the Metro Pets show on Tuesday night at 8 pm on the Metro Learning
Channel with host Marc Marrone (the show with the guy with all the
animals).
 
I have not been able to respond sooner since we were busy finishing issue
#23 and getting it to the printer.  I have been reading the commentary on
the FML (every day for years - in fact that's how we first found out about
Tiffany).
 
Why did Tiffany get on the front cover?
 
Because she was willing to and she wanted to help us out.
 
Because her being on the front cover can sell magazines.  And that means
people buy the magazines.  And that means people read the magazines.  And
that means people learn about ferrets.  (Of course, it also means we can
afford to keep producing the magazine.)
 
Tiffany on the front cover has gotten us a lot of publicity including
newspaper articles, magazine articles, mention on the Late Late Show, and
one TV appearance by Mary (so far).  As the FMLs this whole week amply
demonstrate, this is a magazine a lot of people are talking about.
 
Tiffany on the front cover enabled us to do a cover to cover promotion at
Borders Books in which they took more than 4000 copies OVER what they
usually take.  For comparison, the FML goes out to just over 3000
addresses.  And we got additional copies into other stores as well.
 
That's a lot of additional people who are going to have the opportunity to
learn about ferret care.  For example:
 
Some of the content of issue #22 that seems to not be being mentioned in
all these posts:
 
Page 18 - Pet Store Patrol
Here on Long Island there is almost no private breeding going on.  That
means nearly every ferret is purchased at a pet store.  The local club - A
Ferret Club - has instituted a Pet Store Patrol which utilizes the size of
the club's membership to try to sway stores to provide better treatment for
their ferrets.  Nearly every issue of their newsletter rates stores and
details their progress on this front.  This isn't just idle talk - this is
ferret owners making a difference.  Since nearly every pet ferret on Long
Island is purchased in a pet store this is serving to help nearly every
ferret in the area!  I think this is one of the most important articles in
the issue and is certainly one that every other local club should learn
about and perhaps try to institute in their area.
 
Page 20 - Did you know that liquid prednisone comes in different flavors?
As someone who has spent the better part of the past year on prednisone
(pills), that was kind of interesting to discover.  And yes, it is a LOT
easier to get a ferret to take a prednisone flavor that they like.
 
Page 22 - New Advances in the Treatment of Adrenal Tumors written by Dr.
Charlie Weiss.  Important information from a well respected ferret
veterinarian on the research he is conducting.  How much faith do I have in
Dr. Weiss?  Let's just say that he's in Maryland and we're in New York and
he's the veterinarian that we chose to do adrenal surgery on our Sabrina
when she needed it.
 
Page 28 - Stress in the Older Ferret by Pam Troutman with input from Bob
Church.  Not only is this article great (although such topics have been
discussed often on the FML) but it shows photographs of what exactly these
nest boxes and puppet toys are that Bob is always mentioning.
 
Page 46 - The Escapades of Ammonia the (Astounding) Blind Ferret by Millie
Sanders.  Very inspirational how well Ammonia gets along in the world -
it's important to demonstrate to people that just because a ferret is
blind, deaf, etc.  does not mean that the ferret's life is over.  Ferrets
can overcome all sorts of handicaps - they have a lot less emotional
baggage than people.
 
Page 72 - (fun stuff) XANY Weasel-Wardancer Princess - an excellent parody
story written and illustrated by Mary.
 
Of course there's lots of other fun stuff (a whole magazine-full), care
tips, fake ads (RATS WARS: Episode #1 The Ferret Menace), etc.
 
There's a lot of good content to this issue beyond the Tiffany Taylor
stuff - and doesn't everyone read it for the articles?
 
- Eric
 
Modern Ferret Magazine - For ferret owners. By ferret owners.
Mary & Eric Shefferman & the Fuzzies: Sabrina, Marshmallow, Knuks, Trixie,
Bosco da Gama, Balthazar, Cauliflower, Koosh, and Gabrielle
http://www.modernferret.com
[Posted in FML issue 2689]