Oh, for people trying to recall who Seven is: she is the rescue albino
who looks somewhat male, so at first people thought she was one till she
finally let her privates be seen.  She was apparently dumped by someone and
went into a general animal shelter last Winter but they were coming up to
the time to put her down so I got an emergency call about her.  Originally,
we were supposed to pick her up for someone else but she needed extensive
dental surgery that they couldn't afford right off the bat so she joined
our family.  She loves people but it took a lot of work to get her
integrated with other ferrets.  Her largest recovery problem is likely to
be that between her being very intelligent and very strong there will be
boredom.  We might have a firmer handle on her age; now that she has been
seen inside as well as out it looks like four years is a pretty likely
general idea.  She showed people how much she trusts us by putting her
her head completely into my mouth at the vet's to lick my molars.
 
Linda writes:
>Me?  I'm confused and wishing someone would figure this all out.  As Tim
>in the UK pointed out, a natural diet is undoubtably better, but as West
>Coast Georgia says, it is not very easy for most of us to do that.
 
That's for sure. A general reminder to folks here on the FML:
natural diet doesn't mean just meat or just meat and fat.  Wild relatives
eat some skin, meat, fat, some bone, some cartilage, organs, some marrow,
etc.  (Likely also get some fetal critters, some fetal birds, some yolks,
some amphibians, some fish, some insects, etc.)  All parts have useful
contributions to a diet, not just meat.
 
DO remember that there doesn't really appear to be any actual evidence that
non-US ferrets live longer (once people put aside recollections and looked
at records of dates -- unless that has changed).  It's just that they get
different health problems before moving here.  It may well be that late 6
to early 8 years old, with a few ferrets older or a few younger might be
usual lifespan range pretty well anywhere.  I don't know and I don't know
anyone who has much hard data (known ages with documented dates from things
like vet records) on that for a range of ferrets in a range of locations.
Most of our's go in their 7th or 8th years and stay strong and happy for
most of their lives.  (We are in the U.S. and have had ferrets in the
family for something like 17-18-19 years.)
 
Rebecca, the late Meeeteetse used to love squid.  Sherman has taken a
liking to it which is great because it means I stopped crying whenever
eating it since The Fly wasn't climbing up and stealing pieces.
[Posted in FML issue 3318]