Just to clarify; Bear does not have ECE; ECE is a virus, and the last time I
heard, viruses do not respond to or are cured by antibiotics (secondary
bacterial infections can, but that's something different).  Bear is
responding rapidly and favorably to his antibiotic therapy, and is picking
on everyone in his usual dumb fashion.  I shouldn't have used the phrase
green squishies to describe his diarhea, which I have always had a hard time
spelling.  The green color is an indication the material is being processed
through the bowel too fast for the bile to magically change colors.  OK, not
really magic, but let David Copperfield try it.
 
Margaret: I've always admitted I suffer from testosterone poisoning; I
prefer to call the condition "Testosterosis." For the PC among you, I am
"Hormonally Challenged."
 
Kat: Yeah, I noticed the penile limerick, as well as the new one.  I even
thought they were funny, which scares me ;-) In reward, I grant you the
"Golden Bacula Award" which is a rather serious award I might add.  As for
what it looks like, well, think "gold" and think "bacula." BTW, its 18
ferrets, and by the number of scratches and bite-marks on my forearms, they
don't think of me as a hob, but rather as dinner.
 
Q: (Private Post) Why does my ferret hide food all over the place?
 
A: They are secretly employed by the pet food industry to increase sales.
 
The act is call "hoarding," which is an extremely common mammalian behavior,
common to almost all mammalian families.  Usually, the behavior is noticed
in carnivores, but it is also well developed in many other mammals,
including rodents, and some bats and primates.
 
Regardless if the food is nuts (squirrels), bark (beavers), amphibians
(polecats), maize (humans), or antelope (leopards), the basic behavior is to
save the excess food in one or more locations for future use.  In many
cases, this instinctual need is so strong that it cannot be prevented, as
anyone who has owned a pet hamster can testify.  The same is true with
ferrets, although the instinct seems to be stronger in some compared to
others.  Hoarding toys (or other objects) is probably a domestication-
moderated transference of food hoarding.
 
Some people have reported that unlimited food tends to cause the ferrets to
gradually stop hoarding food, which I have also noticed to a degree.
However, I don't worry about it, and periodically clean it up to prevent
mold from growing on the food.  BTW, humans are the only apes that seem to
hoard, and it appears to be a primarily learned behavior rather than an
instinctual one.  Some animals also seem to have learned hoarding from their
peers or parents.  In most, it is probably a combination of an instinctual
desire reenforced by learned behavior.  I read one paper that suggested the
hoarding of money by some humans was a reflection of food hoarding, and to a
lesser degree, collections of stuff, like my collection of funny or weird
CDs (I just got a new Leonard Nemoy CD.  Cool!)
 
Q: (Private post; FML) Why do ferrets have such long necks?
 
A: Because they are neck-id little creatures.
 
Up front, no one really knows.  There are some ideas, but all are unproven.
One of the ideas is so a short burrowing predator can carry large prey items
and not trip over them.  Maybe, but almost all predators have that problem,
and polecats in general eat items generally smaller than themselves, such as
frogs and birds.
 
Another idea is for mechanical advantage in biting.  Big head and jaws
require big muscles, and a burrowing lifestyle made the neck long and thin
rather than short and thick.  I don't think much of this one, because most
burrowing animals have short thick necks.
 
The best idea is that long thin necks are also quite flexible, which is a
tremendous advantage in killing prey within burrows.  Even if the prey can
hold back the predator's body, the long neck brings those nasty jaws into
lethal range.  This is probably the most accurate idea, because many
predators than specialize in hunting burrowing animals tend to be long and
thin, and have long thin necks, such as many viverids.
 
As stated, these are ideas, and little evidence exists to prove any of them.
In fact, the real reason could be any combination of ideas, or one not yet
thought of.
 
Mo' Bob and the 18 Mo' Meddlesome Monkeys
[Posted in FML issue 1864]