Thank you, Bruce!  I had promised Hanan that I would ask about ferrets with
hind end weakness because he also would like to hear follow-ups on such
individuals, hypotheses, and observations.  Could people with ferrets or
treating such ferrets, please post?
 
Hanan has noticed a sudden anomalous number of adrenal problems, often in
multiple ferret households and is beginning to wonder about the chance of a
microbic trigger eventually being found.
 
In answer to the question from a few here: viverids and mustelids began at
different times in widely separated areas of the globe, and representatives
of each found that a good living was to be had by feasting on ground living
criiters or by sheltering in the earth, or both (protection from many
predatory animals -- which may still have to be avoided when one emerges to
move, play, mate, drink, find some of the needed food, etc., never
particularly hot or cold once one goes deep enough, plus if one happens to
be thin enough and flexible enough, and tough enough to take burrows from
similarly sized animals who then become a food source that life style can be
a great energy saver.) Those able to do this the best had a better
probability of survival, of mating, and of having higher numbers of their
young survive than those who did it poorly.  Mutations are common things; we
all have a few, and sometimes they turn out to useful for managing to win
the genetic competition of having more individuals than your neighbors have
with one's own genes in future populations.  In this way a population drifts
(gradualism) or surges (punctuated equalibrium) toward optimazation for the
pressures felt by previous generations.  Some of the viverids like the
mongoose and some of the mustelids like polecats faced similar survival
requirements such as avoiding hawks and owls, hunting, sheltering in
burrows, etc.  Hope this helps.
 
   Sukie and Steve (both substrate) and the Satirically Satanic Six (gems)
 
P.S. Around here we find that dried cranberries, and blueberry puree help
when one has a UTI.
[Posted in FML issue 1459]