>From:    Judy Gronwold <[log in to unmask]>
>Subject: Distemper Vaccinations
>My little girl, Cara Mia, (Ghengis Khan's daughter) had a moderate
>reaction to the Fervac-D last year, and an extremely severe reaction to
>the Fervac-D this year.
 
This is a case where Galaxy-D is probably worth trying.  Until Merial gets
its new distemper vaccine on the market thats about the only alternative.
 
>Thanks for any help and I look forward to seeing you in October...can I
>come introduce myself?
 
Absolutely.  Will Cara Mia be attending this year if she did get a Fervac
vaccination?  (even if it wasn't so much fun) And has she been going
through rings I've judged and not known it?
 
>From:    Judy Gronwold <[log in to unmask]>
>Subject: Re: Judging
>There was a lot of complaining at the meeting after the GCFA show last
>year, but I honestly didn't agree with any of it.  Judges are simply
>people...some see things differently.
 
By all means, if there is any question or even complaint about what we
judges are did, come talk to us.  Of course as with anybosy, we would be
far more receptive to "Could you exlain why?" than to "What are you idiots
doing?".
 
Having been at several GCFA shows in a row, I hope things haven't changed
that much.  Total points given in the AFA scheme are often lower than given
in LIFE/independent shows but thats due to what I perceive as weaknesses
in the LIFE/independant scoring system.  The ferret is certainly no worse.
Its just the way the sheet is set up and points broken out that leads to
drastic total differences.  At the Warm Fuzzy show for instance they
invented a whole new scoring sheet that on the surface would seem better to
someone who hasn't been judging for a while.  One of the very first things
I told them upon seeing the form was that the scores were all going to be
high and clustered very tightly.  They were.  But it didn't mean the
ferrets were anybetter or anyworse than if the scoring sheet was different.
 
And for what its worth, having done that streak of shows in Chicago, I
think you folks that went last year should be real proud of the fact that
in all honesty the ferrets as they were shown were actually much better
prepared and as far as I can tell better cared for.  Since that is
nominally one of the goals of the ferret shows and the organizations, it
seems its working in Chicago!
 
>The one thing I feel LIFE did at the Michigan show that was really,
>really great is have a separate ring for the judges' ferrets.
 
Well that would likely have been the GLFA show and they use their own
system.  I'm coming around to liking that idea.  LIFE and the AFA are both
guilty of appearing somewhat corrupt in giving way too many ribbons to show
sponsors and judges.  Thats why we do not show ferrets - we thought we were
winning too often for it to look 'good' to the general public.  The list of
shows where complaints about judges and sponsors taking all the best
trophies and ribbons are WAY too numerous.
 
And if it was a show in Michigan where the question of stained teeth
occured you need to worry about the GLFA scoring than LIFE scoring.
Unless somethings changed I don't know about.
 
bill this time..
--
bill and diane killian
zen and the art of ferrets
http://www.zenferret.com/
mailto:[log in to unmask]
[Posted in FML issue 2804]