Warp was abused by males as a kit and forever was leery of males (with
two exceptions) for her 8 years.  I am not sure if that was still a
memory or not.  I CAN tell you that Warp has died over a month ago and
several of the ferrets freak if we say her name and then search the house
for her.  Jumper died about a half year ago and we still had one or two
respond when his name was said recently and go searching for him (One may
have been copying.), associating him with his favorite ferret toys.  A
friend was away for at least a year and when he came back Meltie who had
adored him knew him without any problems except that she at first glared
at him for leaving but soon relented and resumed their own private games.
In the wild polecats would HAVE to have long memories for some things,
esp. seasonal ones needed annually or perhaps ones that mean survival in
hard times like droughts which may be needed more than a year apart, to
survive.  They seem to sometimes forget tricks after several months of
not doing them, but not always.
 
Short term memory is affected by distraction in humans; if you distract
someone enough before the memory can set into the long term memory then
it goes away after a bit but things that aren't essential can be held
there for a while.  Long term memories are exactly that.  They are
processed differently from short term ones in humans.  I can't recall
details, but there is a lot written on this.
 
Bill wrote:
>[Moderator's note: I've traced some virus e-mail back to two people on
>the FML.  Neither of them believe their machines are infected.  I should
>have included something about killer ladybug eggs from mars that infect
>us when eat pizza or something like that and it would be all over the
>internet by now as if it were fact.  But try to convince people to do
>something reasonable like run a virus checking program?  Nah...  BIG]
 
Glad that your traced it back and hope they do something!  Those things
appear in mails received here at a rate of as many as a half dozen a day
recently.
 
It could not have been an easy job given that they fake where they come
from; I sure hope those people LISTEN and try to clean up.  It's the only
fair thing to do!  [Not difficult sometimes with e-mail records,  BIG]
 
Love the lady bug thing, and you are completely RIGHT about how some
would react!
 
>> :-) seems like a lot of people are all for this "vacation" (the whole
>>one day of it...)  Here's a suggestion that I think/hope most FMLers
>>would be OK with.  Why not make one day a week be the "day off" so our
>>hard working BIG can rest!
 
>[Moderator's note: It would probably be wrong day each week!  BIG]
 
Bill, you MORE than deserve it!  If you try it and anyone gripes nastily
just form an "up-side-the-head" committee and we/they will handle the
jerks!  It used to be that the FML was the only reputable resource, but
now the resources back each other up so you could safely take a day or
maybe even sometimes two (?) a week, I think, knowing that folks have
options: other lists, archives like
http://listserv.cuny.edu/archives/ferret-search.html which have a wealth
of info, websites by vets, etc.  The FML is still the largest and the
archives astounding, but others can back you up when you need that these
days, so, please, be kind to yourself.  You have way, way, way more than
earned it.
 
Steve and I hope that Wednesday will be a day for fun and relaxation for
you!    [Canceled for the time being.  BIG]
 
Oh, reminder: Smartgroups will be down on Thursday due to maintenance.
 
Sukie
http://fhl.sonic-weasel.org/ (Easily searched FHL archives)
http://www.smartgroups.com/groups/ferrethealth (the FHL addy for
several weeks now)
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Ferret-Health-list/files/ (Until FHL
moderators finish going through and moving the rest of the last year
and half's Files)
http://geocities.com/sukieslist  (which I badly need to update)
[Posted in FML issue 3852]