Unless I'm the only true Animal Planet junkie I imagine that there will be
more than one post on one of Friday's shows remarks about ferrets.
 
I forget the name of the show but its' the one with the two vets that used
to be married, the woman is now an animal behaviorist who comments on
video's sent in while the owner is on the telephone.
 
A woman had sent in a video of her two ferrets who gets into her plants one
of which has a tendency to chew on and eat them.  The one was actually shown
eating a CACTUS, something he does fairly regularly(?) (The cactus was one
that had limbs hanging down) and then showed them snorkling in a vase with
plants hanging out of it.  The behavorist suggested spraying the plants with
a bitter spray from the pet store.  The man (sort of a sidekick) then chimed
in thanking the woman for letting them see ferrets who they thought were
really great BUT he just wanted to remind people that ferrets were still
illegal in some states like California and Hawaii because well if they got
out they could cause damage (the man was sort of babbling at this point so
this is a paraphrase) to local fauna, all the while the woman is nodding her
head and saying good point.  Was a pretty good broadcast till the stuff
about them getting out and causing "damage".
 
I think they have a web site so all you writers out there may want to set
them straight.  Oh and the woman did mention something about "in the wild"
but I let that go because people talk about dog behavior in terms of wolf
behavior too so I wasn't sure if she meant ferrets in the wild or what).
 
As far as descenting - I wouldn't do it unless you have to for health
reasons (who cares if your friend doesn't want to hold your ferret?).  Boris
had impacted glands so I had to have his removed - he still doesn't seem to
poop right to this day (about 1 yr).
 
Mary, Boris and Giesela and of course Booker the rescue dog (who Giesela
still hates)
[Posted in FML issue 2168]