Used "salacious" about a rumor in post yesterday while I meant a different
word that just didn't come to me then or now.  I can think of a rare/old
word that seems similar but have need to pull out a thesaurus, I am
afraid.  The one I am trying to find has implications of nefarious mixed
in with slanderous ...
 
Although it is likely true that some get a charge from passing or creating
rumors I do think that most mean well; they just get carried away,
sometimes get angry with anyone who tries to verify or say anything
different, and later find themselves in a spot because they didn't verify,
verify verify before panicking people by going public.  Heck, yesterday I
had to pull my own jaw off the floor so that I could wag it enough to say,
"Mea culpa" to some folks to whom I said the wrong thing when a first
attempt at verifying something turned out be negated by a second attempt
with a more reputable source.  Happens.  Pays to verify more than once and
to try to use sources who are knowledgeable -- close to the source,
level-headed, nothing to hide or simply wouldn't, and knowledgeable about
the topic being discussed rather than confused on the subject.  We all
know that if we discuss a topic that isn't understood then the content
gets altered -- sometimes very badly.  We also also know that when we
played "telephone" as kids to see how much a passed message changed it
typically changed a LOT the more it was passed, through alterations,
suppositions that got attached, etc.  .
 
>Maybe we'll get lucky, and all Petco's will stop selling fuzzies.
>Who knows.  Let's just try and play nice, huh?  :)
 
I'd love it if they stopped selling ferrets.  Too much variability in the
standards of care provided in the stores and too little upper management
concern about changing that in a positive fashions from what I have seen
thus far.  If they don't stop selling ferrets then they need to over-haul
from the top down how they handle training and supervision of care so that
there aren't so many questionable ones.  At those young ages just a week
of poor care makes a huge difference in size, health, and behavior (just
as it can with human babies), and dehydration in a kit can be just a
matter of hours to one day.  There seems to be too much passing-the-buck
reported instead of responsible action toward constructive changes in how
care is provided for my taste, personally.
 
>Pardon me for being incurably curious, but I am wondering exactly who are
>the people that post with the email address of Sukie Crandall.  I see Dr.
>Williams, Bob. C. and of course, Sukie.  I always enjoy the posts, no
>matter the source, because they tend to have good information.  Like I
>said, just curious and trying to picture the people behind the messages.
 
Also vets beyond Bruce Williams like Ruth Heller, Jerry Murray, Ben Otten,
Mark Burgess, Karen Purcell, etc., the geneticist, Brett Middleton, and
other experts show up.
 
I am one of the 6 co-moderators of the Ferret Health List (along with
Christopher Bennett who created it, Bruce Williams who was the second one,
Mike Janke who was fourth, Pam Sessoms who is also our librarian and was
5th, and Troy Lynn Eckart).  One of my duties is to more widely distribute
the messages which can be found on
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Ferret-Health-list/ .
Bill Gruber has very kindly decided that when they appear here they may
help a range of people beyond the FHL membership which is less than half
that of the FML.  The messages are carried in one direction only.  Hope
that helps!
[Posted in FML issue 3794]