Thanks to all who wrote to me about Joshua!  (He earned - unfortunately - a
well-deserved bite at the ferret show.) I feel I should let the FML know
that he is just fine.  There is a scratch on his lip - it's really not too
bad.  Later that day his big brother accidently beaned him with a football,
so he has a cut on the OTHER side of his lip, too.  Kids!
 
To LisaFerret: I'm sure you were exaggerating - I do it all the time -
because we're passionate about things, but I have to defend those poor
British monarchs and state that brothers did not marry sisters, leading to
hemophilia.  There was certainly a lot of first and second cousin
intermarriage, though.  By the early 20th century, more than half of the
royal family members throughout Europe were descended from Queen Victoria,
and the tragic hereditary illness of hemophilia did occur frequently among
them.  Like the Marshall's Farm ferrets, the royals did have kind of a
closed gene pool, since they had to marry other royals.  That's how you end
up with someone like Prince Charles.  By the way, in ancient EGYPT royal
brothers DID marry royal sisters.  But I'm not supposed to talk about Egypt
<G>.
 
On poop training: I have found a sure fire way to get ferrets to stop
pooping in the wrong corner.  All you have to do is put a nice, new $$
triangle ferret poop pan, filled with lovely litter and even a sample of
ferret -er- artwork in the pan in that very same corner.  They'll never go
near the corner again.  That's what happened to me!
 
Kat
[Posted in FML issue 1694]