OK, I admit it, I sniffed my kids' tails too.  I was all by myself and (as
you might imagine) really bored.  So, why not?
 
My results: Spot, the fella, did indeed smell sweet and purty, like a
honeysuckle.  The 2 girls: smelled like ferret and dust.  I thought maybe
it was a sex-linked thing.  But now, here's the weird part: I got my
boyfriend to sniff them all, and he didn't smell the flower- smell on Spot
at all!
 
My theory is, it's like asparagus.  You know how it makes your pee smell?
Well according to the June issue of Runner's World, the ability to detect
that odor is genetic.  The smell is caused by some sort of chemical
(naturally occuring) which is always present in your urine after you eat
asparagus, but which you can only smell if you have the specific gene
for it.
 
Haha, so can we conclude there's a special ferret flower gene?!
 
--Skyla
[Posted in FML issue 2734]