Debbie Riccio, I have lost your address and the information Bill included
about your cards in a past issue.  We have some of our holiday cards, but
since we send about 150 cards and postcards we need more non-religious
ones.  You may use our address above, or 1-908-0506 for voice, or 172
Jamestown Road, Basking Ridge, N.J. 07920 as is convenient.
 
Bill, you are wonderful and the one (presumably not feeling well at the
time) person who said otherwise can just TRY saying so to me.  I snarled
down a jaguar years ago and still remember how to growl with the best of
them.  (Yes, back then I smelled just as Bob does; BTW, covering such odors
is why cigar smoking is historically done by anatomists, and telling casual
cigar smokers that tends to turn them green -- a real plus.)
 
Bruce, now Bill and Charlie need vacations!  We are so glad that you finally
did the big-V.
 
The individual who noticed that the ferret with the removed distal phalanges
still tried to dig may want to remember that many members of Carnivora have
multiple ways of scent marking, including rubbing paw pad scent on things.
Our guys have been a bit over-board on less pleasant forms of marking
recently, ever since we had the audacity to go away without them for a day.
They now keep us in and others out with well placed turds and piddle right
on the slate in front of our door.  (What is that oozing tween my toesies,
may be warm but sure not cozy...).
 
I have been playing with a chicken-or-the-egg idea recently.  Pam noticed
that her ferret who bothered the opossums stopped when they played dead.
Now, I am well aware of the lack of evidence that ferrets have gone feral.
I have also seen cats and dogs which had not been taught to hunt, to eat
wild prey, or to suck eggs learn to do each.  Prey animals behave
differently from non-prey animals (in fact, I suspect that those who have
trouble with carnivorous critters may partly find that like the majority of
primates they act (and in response to wild animals or sometimes to pets --
smell from these reactions) more like prey species -- very outwardly aware
in a generalized fashion, wary, etc.  than those of us who are calmer in
such situations).  Some prey behaviors trigger hunting in adult animals and
play in juveniles.  If domestic animals have an imposed neoteny then their
ability to go feral could partly depend on if such a play situation could
easily degenerate into a fatal result and tantalizing taste (perhaps more
tantalizing if the animal is used to raw meat, or to eggs for the suckers).
Domestic ferrets tend to be smaller, slower, and less coordinated than most
of the potential prey species we find in the United States, and many of our
ground dwelling animals are either fully willing to defend themselves, to
use tunnels too narrow for ferrets (which are worse diggers than they), or
to otherwise prevent such a situation from taking place.  I.E.: Ferrets may
simply be less likely to run into conditions which allow them to learn that
other animals can be turned into lunch than other pet members of Carnivora.
It is not like a dog or cat which can out-run a rabbit and then quickly
dispatch the potential toy, in so doing finding that some toys make good
food.  (Even ferret species which are wild tend to need colony animals which
can be easily cornered for food and stolen shelter.)
 
Re:  CA:  If HSUS stays illogical what about counter-balancing their
testimony with that from AHA and AHS?
 
         typed with digits as webbed as some of our ferrets have --
         except pollix -- more webbed, and loosely formed
         by a brain underlying what used to be a nicely oiled
         scalp in my younger years, by someone who got the joke,
 
         Sukie and the rest
[Posted in FML issue 1383]