>>And so.... is the partial poley we got from you a partial "wild" or not?
>>This was indirectly through Sue to Glenna to us... (Okay getting into a
>>personal note I guess...) But regardless this hob is fair better tempered
>>than the descendants of James McKay's Peter Polecat that made it to this
>>country.
 
>Oh yes - the "partial poley" you have is from wild stock.  If my memory
>serves me right (I personally had nothing to do with that particular batch
>of ferrets, so can't comment with any real authority on their parentage),
>the descendants from Peter Polecat that came over in 1995 were first cross
>to wild polecat.  The one that you have (on which I CAN comment with real
>authority) is from a litter that is 3 generations removed from wild, with
>the wild polecat coming down through the hob line, in each case the jill
>selected was done so on the basis of tameness and general tractability.
>This way, we were attempting to combine the best of the wild physical
>structure with evenness of temperament.  If there is a difference in your
>hob being more even tempered, I can only suggest that to be the reason.  So,
>the qualities that we were focusing on in our breeding seems to have met
>with a degree of success.  What do you think?
 
I have a partial poley 12 week old hob (75% pole 25% English ferret) named
Joey.  His dam was Camelot and his sire was Chevy.  I am curious do you know
how many gens Joey is removed from wild stock?
 
BTW Joey is now 100% litter box trained and 80% bite trained (he still likes
toes thank god for bitter apple!).  I am very proud of my smart little boy
um well not so little now..  :-)
 
Maggie
[Posted in FML issue 2005]