Hi folks:
 
Has anyone noticed that people, when first meeting your ferrets, tend to
comment on how "human" they seem?  I'm convinced people do this more with
my ferrets than ever they did with any cat or dog I've had as a pet.  It's
almost invariably the response.
 
Recently I took my ferret Phoebe to the vet for a checkup.  Although
usually very active and interactive, the moment we entered the vet's office
she became very quiet, just cowered in the corner of her carrier.  This
astonished me, as she had only been to a vet's once before, and that months
ago, when she was very young.  As the vet examined her she was again very
still--so much so that the vet suggested she must be ill.  I told him,
however, that she had been fine a few minutes before and that I thought
she was just scared.
 
At one point I stepped away from the examining table.  When I did Phoebe
shot me a glance of pure panic, which compelled me to step toward her
again, to stroke her reassuringly.  When the vet was done examining her I
picked her up and she immediately buried her face in my shirt, holding her
eyes tightly shut and shivering all over for the rest of the visit.  When I
got her back into the car, however, she returned to her normal, happy self.
 
I felt overwhelmed with guilt about having put her through this ordeal--
even though the ordeal was strictly psychological, the vet having done
absolutely nothing to cause Phoebe the least physical pain.  When I told my
family about this experience they just rolled their eyes and shook their
heads, as if I had gone over the hill.  They obviously were convinced that
I was projecting unto my ferret emotions she could not possibly have.  Yet
I know that ferrets do have such emotions, are indeed just that sensitive.
 
Those who believe in the supernatural have a theory about cats: that they
are "familiars," possessed of the spirits of people who have passed on.
Familiars can be evil (as in the case of the black cat that accompany
witches on their broomsticks) or good (acting as guardian angels to their
companions).  Although I am not at all superstitious and not in the least
antipathetic toward cats--like them a lot, in fact--I think this notion of
the Familiar better applied to ferrets.  It is at times uncanny how human
they appear.
 
Best,
 
KCA
 
Kelly Anspaugh
The Ohio State University-Lima
4240 Campus Drive
Lima, Ohio  45804
PHONE: 419-995-8322
FAX: 419-221-1658
 
"Joe had been explaining things in the meantime.  He said it was again
the beginning of the unfinished, the re-discovery of the familiar, the
re-experience of the already suffered, the fresh-forgetting of the
unremembered.  Hell goes round and round."
 
               Flann O'Brien, The Third Policeman
[Posted in FML issue 3159]