Just a simple plea to the ferret breeder - AVOID INBREEDING !
 
My thanks to Matt Oestings for the warm words, and for our finding each
other.
 
Matt recently adopted a little silver mitt, spayed and descented, female
ferret with a name that may be unusual to the eyes of thee and thou:
 
GETKO - go, where "go" is the Japanese word for "5."
 
GETKO is an abbreviation and combination name of this little lady ferret.
It is a name derived from the two ferret parents who conceived and birthed
GETKO right here at Ferrets NorthWest.
 
The father ferret's name: GETAW - ni.  The mother ferret's name: KODO.
 
GETAW - ni is a pedigreed ferret, also born at FNW.  KODO is a non-pedigreed
ferret (born of unknown parents) in Colorado and later turned into FNW, in
heat for the 2nd time, by her owners.  These two ferrets were not related
to each other, so the likelihood of inbreeding was very remote, if
non-existant.
 
Six weeks following the first of three copulations (three to absolutely
ensure fertilization and the termination of estral swelling of the vulva)
a litter was birthed by KODO.  As stated above, the father ferret was
GETAW - ni.
 
The name of the litter is determined by the names of the father and the
mother.  Hence, we have from GETAW - ni and KODO the litter name of GETKO.
All, everyone of the kits is named "GETKO."
 
As the kits (usually held until they are juveniles) are adopted into
"qualified" homes they are assigned a number that is consecutive to the time
they are adopted; id est, the first GETKO juvenile that is adopted receives
the suffix -1, the second -2, the third -3, and so on.
 
However, rather than use the English language numerals suffixed to their
bionames, we have chosen to use the Japanese language.  Two reasons for
this: 1.) A foreign language numeral is "romantic." 2.) All Americans can
pronounce Japanese numerals, since they are phoneticized from the Japanese
Kanji or Katagana painted characters.  Note that most Americans have lazy
tongues and cannot or do not want to properly pronounce numerals in other
foreign languages.
 
A superb example here is to compare pronounciation of German words to
Eubonic words, the near language of the "American" Negro, erroneously
termed "African-American."
 
So in the above case, GETKO - 1 becomes GETKO - ichi, GETKO - 2 becomes
GETKO - ni, and GETKO - 3 becomes GETKO - san.  In Matt's case, his ferret
is named GETKO-go, where "go" is number five.
 
Thusly, in the event a GETKO adult (a F2 generation) is to be mated, we will
avoid selecting another GETKO ferret as the spouse, and depending upon the
sex, we will avoid backbreeding to the father or the mother, referred to as
the F1 generation.  We also avoid mating ferrets that have similar names
either in the first or second position of the bioname; id est, GETBA-koo to
GETKO-shi.
 
The biological name and Japanese suffix is entered on the dual copies of the
ADOPTION AGREEMENT AND LIABILITY RELEASE forms, along with the adopter's
name, address, phone, e-mail address, the ferret's sex, its reproductive
state, its color, its weight, and its innoculation status.
 
Since the owner's name is tied to the bioname on the ADOPT AGRMNT & LIBILTY
RLSE forms, the identity of the ferret is preserved in the files of FNW,
even if the owner of the ferret changes the ferret's name.
 
To prevent sale of the adopted ferret to a second owner, a $500 transfer fee
liability is imposed on the adopter upon his signing the adoption agreement.
This helps to maintain the ownership trail of a specific ferret adopted from
FNW by impeding, if not outright inhibiting resale of FNW ferrets.
 
This "system" for maintaining blood purity in FNW's ferrets sometimes
results in some humorous names, as in the mating of the male ferret named
"FERRET" and the female ferret named "QUEENIE." This litter was termed
"FERQUE," and in Tel Aviv, the tenth ferret would not be too popular with
the name of "FERQUE - joo," unless it was owned by Yasir Arafat.
 
                Quantum sufficit. [L.] Enough already.
Edward Lipinski, Frettchenvergnuegen from the Frettchenlustbarkeitsfuehrer !
Frettchenvergnuegen [G.] Joy of Ferrets.  F...fuehrer [G.] Ferret frolics
leader.
[F]erret [E]ndowment for [R]esearch,[R]ehab, [E]ducation & [T]raining
[S]ociety, NorthWest.
[Posted in FML issue 2228]