Hello all...Sorry for the long delay, but a death in the family stole me
from the FML for a while.  I opened my mailbox and found more e-mail than I
can read in a week, many wondering if I had just evaporated or if my 13
fuzzies had taken control.  No and yes.
 
Regarding color vision (again).  I have never personally tested any animal
for color vision, but the tests are fairly straight forward, and somewhat
similar to those given to human subjects in color blindness tests (although
not as complex) where the subject is required to distinquish different
colors having identical gray tones.  Secondly, the internal structure of the
eye-the relationship of rods to cones-determines the physical ability of the
eye to distinquish color.  The ferret eye is rich in rods and very poor in
cones (cones are sensitive to bright light and can distinguish different
wavelengths of the visible spectrum, while rods are very sensitive to dim
light, but lack the ability to distinquish colors [although in some species,
rods can distinquish some reds]).
 
The obvious example is like seeing things in black-and-white photos, but a
better one would be what you see when you go outside on a dark night.  If
the light is dim enough, you will not see much color, because the intensity
is too low to cause the cones to fire.  To increase the chance of a light
photon striking a rod, ferrets (as do many night-adapted animals like cats)
have a special reflective layer in the eye to bounce photons back up into
the rod-layer.  This layer makes their eyes seem to glow, and has caused me
much frustration when trying to take flash photos of the fast little
beasties.  No matter how carefully I measure the angles, they have the
inborn ability to turn their head at the exact angle to reflect all light
directly into the camera lens.  They do this exactly one millisecond prior
to shutter release.  Yes, I can freeze the action, but they all look like
devil-ferrets.  (I have given up, and retouch the photos later.  I cheat.)
 
The bottom line is, between the color comparison studies and the internal
structure of the eye, there is little doubt that ferrets are nearly
completely colorblind.  But so what?  One of my prized possessions is a B&W
Ansel Adams print, and few color photos can match its beauty.  I doubt if
ferrets know or even care about color.  But if they did consider these types
of questions, they would probably feel sorry for us for our inability to
distingish the spectrum of odor that they have the ability to "see."
 
Regarding hate mail and Paw Paw/Kelleen.  Hang in there, and keep pounding
the 'pooter.  (Hey Paw Paw, if you said a bad joke, can I say you are a
pooter pounder with cheese?) All I can say is, how would you be able to
measure the good without the bad for comparison?  Its the dues you have to
pay to have access to such a fine resource.  I learn something from each
issue of the FML, so if I have to put up with some "nasty" from time to
time, well, its still a good value.  I would go so far as to say that it is
the diversity of opinion which makes this such a great thang ta read.  The
one thing I've noticed about ferret owners is that they are all somewhat
independent--the choice of a smelly, carpet-digging, litter-box-missing,
flesh-biting, anal sac-spraying, evil-eyed near-miss-for-a-rodent supports
that thought.  Independent people tend to be opinionated..yeah, you know the
rest.  Just store those messages in the circular file.  I resedited a toliet
on my mac, and I love flushing (yes, I'm gonna say it) the crap.  Hell, I
like the both of you.  But hey, I'm Bob, and that may not be a good thing....
 
Well, I finally found something that gets the attention of ALL 13 FERRETS!
I was in a mall pet store looking at a minature pinscher, and wondering how
it would get along with 13 carpet sharks.  But at $400, the wondering was
very brief, and I bought a consolation prize instead, which was a white
fluffy ball with an attached plastic face.  Inside the ball is a
high-pitched squeaker.  I was squeaking the thing while moving it back and
forth, and had a herd of rug rats following my every move.  Moose would
launch himself at the fuzzyball, making leaps of several feet.  Once, while
I was playing with Apollo, he came up from behind, leapt off the sofa, and
snagged the ball mid-air, about two feet from the ground.  Unfortunately, he
also snagged my thumb, and hung on tightly to both the ball and the Bob,
dangling by his teeth.  I quickly lowered him to the floor, and he
immediately tried to hide both the ball and the thumb under the sofa.  I was
not amused.  But I was thumb nailed.
 
Bob and the 13 Squeaky Sharks
[Posted in FML issue 1456]