I want to apologize to the list for comments like " the error of his ways"
in my post about how to send comments to John McPherson's syndicate's web
page (for the Leaping Ferrets cartoon).  Rather than making this post a
rather neutral one about how to navigate a couple of traps in a web page if
you wanted to make comments of a positive or critical nature, I assumed that
there would be consensus with my views on the strip and biased the post.  I
am very sorry to have offended anyone with this rather arrogant assumption.
 
I do want to explain why this particular cartoon struck a raw nerve with me,
in the hopes that it might explain why some of us may have found little to
laugh about in the cartoon.  The comic echoed a situation occurring last
year here in New England.  A distributor who overestimated the demand for
200 ferret kits he bought, crammed the whole shipment into two tanks, not
unlike the one depicted in the comic.  The kits were crowded, with little
food and no water, into these tanks and displayed in the distributor's
store.  Employee did not handle them.  Of course they jumped--they were
trying to get out.  Of course they bit--they were frightened, and their
blood sugar levels were low, making them even nippier.
 
A complaint was lodged, the and the agriculture dept stepped in.  The
distributor's response to the first citation was to cram the kits into fish
tanks in the store's isolation room.  They were packed like sardines--no
room to move or defecate or sleep, no water, food thrown in occasionally.
No handling.  Of course they bit.
 
After the second complaint, the kits were dispersed to goodness knows where.
One hopes they landed in good pet stores where they were given adequate
space, water, food, and handling, and then sold to people who knew how to
train and care for them.  But most likely, they were considered unsellable
(even at 20 percent off), and destroyed.
 
So, given this prism through which to view the comic, the only punchline
that I could see was that the store owner didn't care enough about his/her
stock to properly house, feed, or handle them.  Is this reading too much
into a cartoon?  Ya sure, y'betcha.  Does this mean that there are no people
out there involved in ferret rescue, owner education, and legalization who
did find the comic funny?  Nope, and it doesn't make them any less caring or
sensitive than those of us who had the opposite reaction.
 
Humor is, pardon me, a funny thing.  Had the tank been full of leaping
lizards, I probably would have thought nothing of it, except to note the
Li'l Orphan Annie reference, while a herpetologist working in rescue may
have had another reaction.
 
My invitation to write one-panel ferret comic ideas still stands.  This is
the season of springtime giddiness and fools.  Ferret owners are not
humorless--if that were true, we couldn't put up with an animal that hides
our car keys, socks, and checkbooks; takes it upon itself to rearrange our
bookshelves, drawers, and lives; chooses to ignore our calls when it know
it's being less than angelic; and departs our lives much too soon-- after
6-12 years of the most fun and companionship one can ask from a pet.
 
-- Lee
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[Posted in FML issue 1888]