My non sequiteur to this long story about ferrets is
I remember when I was five years old I lived on a farm
in Cornwall, England (I was evacuated from London becaise
of the "Blitz") and the farmer had a ferret which
he put down rabbit burrows to terrorize the rabbits into
running out of their burrows into waiting traps. The term
'rodent` when aplied to ferrets is very apt, because
a ferret is even more 'rodent-like` than a rat. Sharp,
sharp teeth and murderous-looking eyes. Ughh....
 
[This article came from someone not on the list and who mailed
to ferret-list-out, so you've probably already seen this.  How
Margaret saw issue 040 is beyond me.  I'm currently trying to find
out whether she wants to join.
 
Please don't send mail to "ferret-list-out" - this is the alias
I send things out to the mailing list with, and if you do mail
this way, it will go out before being "digestified", and won't be
archived.  I've made some changes to the header format so that
"ferret-list-out" won't appear any more.  In fact, a simple
reply will probably get to me just fine.]
 
[My response: Like I said, ferrets aren't very well understood out
there are they?
 
        1) Ferrets are not rodents.  They're "mustelids", which include
           skunks, weasels, otters, fishers, martens, mink, sable etc.
        2) How could they be more "rodent like" than a rat w.r.t. teeth?
           A ferret's tooth pattern is totally different from a rodent's.
           Rodents have large incisors (front teeth - think of a beaver's
           teeth).  Ferrets have large canine teeth - like dogs and cats.
           A ferret's tooth pattern is remarkably similar (at least at
           a first glance) to a cat, only smaller.
        3) Murderous-looking eyes?  Compared to an albino rat?  Ours have
           lovely little brown eyes.  They smile a lot too.  If you want to
           see "murderous", you should take a good look into a weasel's
           eyes.  Beautiful little creature - but I'm sure glad they don't
           get any bigger than they do!
 
Honest, ferrets are wonderful little creatures.  Far less nasty than most
mice, guinea pigs, or chinchillas (or some people's cats) I have known.
Then again, some people have phobias about small animals.  More than one
of our close friends can't bear to be near them.  But at least our friends
don't give 'em bad press ;-)]
                                                                          
[Posted in FML 0041]