Hi, all,
 
We met several Ferret List folks a week ago at the regional ferret show and I
fell so in love with one of Cindy Sooy's males that I didn't even dare get in
touch with anyone for a week.  You see, it would not have been fair for us to
buy him.  In the first place anyone that absolutely beautiful, gentle, and
trusting (He even fell asleep in my arms on first meeting me.) should become
breeding stock.  Steve and I are both allergic to the musk of whole males and
don't have the facilities for breeding so we'd have to have neutered him
straight off.  Secondly, we'd worry that our others weren't getting enough
attention, especially since Ruffle already needs as much attention as any three
normal ones just to keep her back uninjured and comfy, her asthma controlled,
and her limited vocabulary retained.  Last, we are known to local shelters and
vets as folks who are able to deal with abused or handicapped ferrets and what
if we added yet another and then got a re-hab call?  That has happened once
before.  The little guy was what I've heard called calico or party-colored all
in patches so I'd already begun thinking of him as Tatters, but I have no worry
that he got a good home because a breeder there was also looking at him a LOT.
Perhaps our attention got Cindy a bit higher price; if so, at least I did a
favor even if it was unintentional.
 
The older woman bringing older ferrets into the pet store may be bringing in
retired breeders.  That's how we wound up with Haleakala back when-- what was
it, 11 years ago or so?
 
Bob, I CAN speak as someone with animal behavior and taxonomy experience, and
with many years of ferret experience with many individuals.  The prominent
hunting styles of what are POSSIBLY domestic ferrets' closest relatives
(multiple species -- though as any lumper will tell you, in mammalia there's a
lot more splitting than there is in other groups hence one should not be
surprised that domestic ferrets may have multi-species origins just as domestic
dogs and domestic cats do.  The closer you get to humans the more we tend to
split so the viability issue gets quite muddled.) are NOT hunting styles like
those of weasels, cats, or dogs.  These guys started out from critters which
needed handy supplies of prolific and easily cornered prey.  As hunters even the
wild predecessors were lousy.  Domestic ferrets die when let loose.
 
The neoteny argument raised by Nick is correct.
 
So are the worries about hawks and owls.  I recall once when on a walk we were
repeatedly dive-bombed by a snowy looking for a sleek belly-full.  Finally I had
to shove Hale into my shirt and make bird head-up-swallowing-a-big-load motions.
It worked immediately.
 
In the '70s when I was at Stony Brook the campus based Fish and Game gave us
some orphaned raccoons which I later trained for the wild (Originally they were
for part of a study on evolutionary convergences between primates and procyonids
which didn't get funded so I missed out on working with kinkajous.) and I am
sure that a full-bellied,  raccoon in good health would probably play with a
ferret till it got annoyed or too rough, and then it would either walk away or
effortlessly dispatch it.  A hungry or ill one would very likely see it as an
easy target.  Sorry, they have to eat, too, and even a person with experience
can hardly handle an adult female raccoon --especially if the coon is preggers.
 
Ruffle has solidly learned to roll over for treats now, but she really surprised
me the other day.  She knows "hurry-hurry" and I was tired of waiting for her to
stop trying to get a treat without rolling over so I said "Ruffie, hurry-hurry
roll-over roll-over."  She stared at me for short while then dropped to the
carpet and rolled over as fast as she could -- startlingly faster than she
normally does.  It's amazing that this is the same ferret who took over three
years to put together that words mean things and who can forget things she's
consistently done overnight.
 
The cover of a speaker gave up and fell to the floor a few nights ago -- only to
have ferrets find it before us so our place became petromalt and belly massage
central until the wee hours when everyone was cleaned out.  "Chopper (the
organic helicopter) took the longest and was still swollen the next day from
irritation so Meltdown wouldn't even come out to play; as alpha she knew that
she had to care for 'Chops. (All our ferrets also have knicknames and 'C knows
that "little pain in the butt" means her and will come to that.)
 
Meltdown is temporarily not talking to Hanan Caine (Exotic specialization from
AMC in NYC who is part of the Basking Ridge Animal Hospital in N.J.) because we
had her usual geriatric CBC done.  She's just fine.
 
BFFs are being released into Montana and North Dakota now, and most northwestern
breeding locations have done very well, though if there is any chance of getting
any new genetic material into the population it is badly needed.  As most know,
several charities such as NWF and the Smithsonian have toy BFFs (of different
styles, with Smithsonian's not being as pretty -- though of the style Spot likes
-- but also having a child's book and cassette to go with it, and NWF having
multiple sizes (and being the style Ruffle prefers).
 
We taught Ruffie to roll-over using one of the toy ferrets (which she likes to
sleep with, play with, and tries to get to take food and water) and are trying
to get her accustomed to other ferrets with it, with some actual but limited
success.
 
    All the best, Sukie, Steve, Meltdown, Ruffle, 'Chopper, Spot, and Meeteetse
[Posted in FML issue 0971]