Yesterday I wrote:
I expect that most folks figured out that the "9" was just a typo from
ham-handed typing, but just in case... Ah, maladroit me...
 
>Because I have a Pitbull, I constantly get those "Oh, she must be mean"
>comments.
>
>We don't have non-ferrets, but this brought to mind something you folks
>don't know, yet, for the most part.  Early next year the Readers' Digest
>will have a short (very-short-very-basic unless writer was afterward asked
>to expand upon it) piece on ferrets.  That's marvelous because it reaches
>so many people who otherwise would not hear any facts on ferrets and the
>version I saw dispelled a rumor of false rumors.
 
Ham-handed, and how about absent-brained. What is actually dispelled
was a LOT of false rumors about ferrets.
 
At 2:00 AM -0500 11/21/01, Automatic digest processor wrote:
>Subject: packing peanuts question
 
>Hello.  I've seen those packing peanuts boxes advertised for ferrets to
>play in.  What type is safe for ferrets?  What happens if they try to eat
>them?  I've ordered items by mail that arrive packed in peanuts.  Does
>anyone know how to tell if they're the safe type that I can let my
>ferrets play in?
 
Not necessarily.  The starch ones may be if the ferret doesn't eat a lot
of them and wind up with a belly blocked by a hard-to-digest dry starch
that is soaking up a lot of fluid.  If not eatten or only slightly nibbled
they are likely safe enough.
 
Avoid the plastic types.  We've had one blocked by that and were just
lucky that it passed about an hour before she was scheduled for surgery
the next morning.
 
Why not buy golf practise balls and have a box of those instead?
[Posted in FML issue 3609]