Yesterday Spot, who has discovered how to sneak without ringing his bell,
decided to play hide and seek with us for 2 and 1/2 hours, not coming to
even his most favorite toy or bell.  After Ruffle's death on Wednesday you
can imagine how worried we became until finally finding him chuckle-ridden
in a location we had just checked a half hour before.  That was when Steve
first realized that what we all REALLY NEED for our ferrets are collars,
harnesses, or tags with tiny ping transponders in them.  (Anyone here who
wants to fly with the idea is welcome to, but, please, remember that we (and
Bill, I expect) could strongly use some samples.) Wouldn't it be great in
that situation to be able to just press a button and hear where your ferret
is hiding or sneaking?  Personally, I'd wear my "call button" on a necklace
so it would always be handy.
 
Jerry, I do not have up to date data, but I am sure that others will correct
me as needed.  If memory serves there have been either 3 or 4 babies
world-wide ever killed by ferrets.  (One case may have been a polecat which
walked in; the folks saw it leaving and owned none of either themselves as I
recall.) The ones which I have seen anything on involved animal and child
abuse or neglect, which is logical since the child would have a protracted
period of crying before damage would become serious.  Perhaps the next time
you run into someone who has not thought this out you should give numbers
and point out WHO really was the problem in the situations.  That tends,
BTW, to be a truism in most cases of pets who act violently.
 
I was wondering about aunting (a term from primatology in which a female
helps nurture and protect younger members of the troop which are not her own
off-spring, sometimes sacrificing her own welfare to do so (extreme
self-scarifice is often more common if she is past breeding age)in domestic
ferrets and their close relatives.  Has evidence, such as higher mortality
of such females but better survival of the young been seen in our guys,
BFFs, other mustelids?  Does anyone have aunting stories for our little
ones?
 
Yet another source of toy stuffed ferrets (cuddly ones which look more like
our's than like BBFs) as well as a child's book and read along cassette is
one of the catalogs of the Smithsonian Museums: Soundprints, 1-800-577-2413,
165 Water St., Norwalk, CT 06854-3700.
 
Scott, Your address did not work.  I sent a message with a good bit of
information on your question, as well as the warning that I was planning to
post the strep/ebola example since I figured it would make folks remember
that there are differences among many illnesses.  The mail came back.
 
Sukie
[Posted in FML issue 1652]