>But they want me to tell you what they prefer to be called: The Danger
>Guys.  They feel it does something for their image.
 
Dina, your note really hit home.  It's been a long-standing joke with my two
male ferrets that they get really upset when we go on and on about how cute
and small and adorable and silky they are, when they perceive themselves as
being huge, dangerous, and badass.  My 4yo light sable, Mr.  Fuzz, is
extremely cute and petite (2# in winter!), but the running joke is that he
thinks he looks like Bruce Willis in the first Die Hard movie.  I keep
taking away his little strap undershirt and washing all the cool dirt- and
bloodstains out of it, which upsets him greatly.
 
Mario is much larger than Fuzz, but has this impossibly silky coat and a
white dot on the top of his head, so no one takes him particularly
seriously, either.  He thinks the theme from Shaft plays whenever he puts
the smack down on an evil dirty sock.
 
I just found out that the Philadelphia Zoo is acquiring something I didn't
even know existed: giant otters, which can reach six feet in length!
Fascinated as I always am by any remotely ferretlike animal (tayras,
mongooses, fishers, etc.) I told the boys about the "wet weasels" and how
huge they were.  Naturally, neither of them were impressed.  They think they
are much larger than that.  I guess this is what I get for letting them
intimidate a Rottweiler (and chase it around the dining room table!) when
they were young and impressionable.  I've got two adorable, fuzzy, cuddly
creatures who think they're really action heroes.
[Posted in FML issue 1392]