Hi all--
Whoever's sending the snow, enough already, OK?  It's not even like it's
real snow, just messy enough so that I can't wear the new shoes that I've
been carefully protecting from ferrets since Christmas but not enough snow
to make things look nice.  Argh.
 
I've noticed Cully doing something rather odd (well,ok, he just plain is
rather odd, but this really struck me).  He seems to bite his blankets in
his sleep.  Not just mouth them, but he hunches over a pile of blankets and
sinks his fangs in, like he's killing them.  I'm pretty sure he's more than
half asleep as he does this, and I've seen him sound asleep with a mouthful
of blankets.  I've looked at the blankets, and he's not actually eating
them.  Since all ferret owners are born worriers (or they convert, once they
get ferrets), I can't help but wonder what's going on with him-- like is he
in internal pain and biting things to deal with it?  Is he taking out all
the biting that he's not allowed to give to people on the blankets?  Or do I
just have the ferret equivalent of a sleep-walker?  He's due for shots and a
teeth cleaning (lord help us all) in a couple of weeks, so a trip to the vet
is in order anyway.
 
On inbreeding in wild species-- just to throw a monkeywrench, so to speak
(yeah, I know gorillas are apes, not monkeys, but why sound intelligent when
you could make a pun instead), into the debate-- as I recall from the
primatology sections of the human evolution course I've TA'd, mountain
gorillas, who have an extremely limited population, under 400 individuals in
the wild, I believe, of necessity commit pretty substantial inbreeding,
despite some nifty social mechanisms to pass the genes around a bit.  Suki
would no doubt know far more about this than I, but apparently the expected
negative results of inbreeding do not occur here-- plenty of normal, healthy
offspring.  Well, not plenty, but a normal number.  So it seems to me that
inbreeding may only be a problem when it is directed towards a specific
trait or group of traits, that random inbreeding does not hurt a population
and may reinforce some good traits.  You'd still have to have a reasonably
large pop., of course.  So what's my point?  I think it's just that we're
talking about somewhat different situations when discussing inbreeding
within wild as opposed to domesticated species.  Inbreeding may not
necessarily be a horrible thing in domesticated species if done carefully,
but anyone inbreeding their stock, IMHO, should feel morally responsible to
know what they're doing.
 
Well, back to Native self-government (I could spout about tribes and
powwows at great length, but I'll spare you all-- all p.c. and no play
makes Johnny a dull girl.  Besides, BIG wouldn't post it for me :-) ).
 
Regina (sick of this snow, I tell you!  Obviously got cabin fever, too!)
Amelia (who cleverly used Cully as a flotation device in the bath)
Cully ("maybe I just really like to bite things")
[Posted in FML issue 1535]