Hi FMLers,
 
boys, am I excited !
 
today was a great day for spreading Ferret's knowledge in Italy.  Igor,
Orietta (and myself) were showing today on our National TV !
 
But let me tell you the whole story, and you''ll pardon me if it is quite
long.
 
Paolo Limiti is a very famous lyricist here; he wrote the words for
hundreds of very well known songs since the 70's.  He is also a real expert
in the history of music and movies, and a great animal lover.
 
He runs, since a couple of years, an afternoon show 5 days a week, from 2
pm to 4 pm, entitled "Let'see us on TV", with many famous artists of those
years as guests.  He had there Connie Francis, Pat Boone, Neil Sedaka, Gene
Pitney, Van Johnson, Sandra Dee, June Allyson, Jane Russel and so on (just
to mention only some of the Americans), with a great audience (6/8
millions).
 
The broadcast is RAI, the State Italian TV (as BBC is for the UK ).  The
funny note is that the TV Studio is less than a mile from my house !
 
Since a couple of weeks the first 45 minutes of the show are entitled "I
Love The Animals", and they talk about and show various kinds, present
short movies and tell stories about them.  (Today they sended the trailer
of "Babe 2").  Very high emphasis is given to cruelty in some kinds of
hunting and to the abandoned animals.  They always show some for adoptions.
It is really well conceived and done.
 
I sent a fax proposing to them to say something about Ferrets, and you know
that here they are not well known as they are in USA; after a couple of
days they phoned to me saying that it was a great idea, asking a few
questions on what I intended to say about and asking me to take them to
the show.
 
And that was today.  I had a real lot of fun in seeing how everybody in
the studio was showing interest in my fuzzies, technicians and secretaries
included, asking lot of questions on them and wanting to handle and to
caress them.  A real Ferret's success !
 
Then in the show I gave some basic info on Ferrets, with emphasis on what
kind of animals they are, on their origins, on their habits and mainly on
the fact that they are not wild animals at all and on how they can be
considered as excellent pets for evolute animal lovers.  Th show was
transmitted "in direct", not pre-recorded.
 
What really surprised me, when I was back at home and I looked at the show
I timer- tape recorded, was the amount of close-ups they made on Igor and
Orietta, when drinking from the bottle or trying to get inside my jacket
or jumping on the floor (they were obvioulsly leashed).  I do believe that
several thousands of people was falling in love with them (as I did, but
then I said to myself "Hey, wake up!  Those are YOUR Ferrets !)
 
I was surely happy to show my fuzzies to the whole Country ( and as it
happened already to me in the past to appear on TV, for professional
reasons, it was not for my vanity), but most of all I feel proud to have
contributed to spread the knowledge of them in Italy.
 
Excited dooks.
 
Fulvio
[Posted in FML issue 2497]