As mentioned earlier, I will be driving to Pasadena CA at the end of March to give a talk to some sweet ferret people. I will be driving through Texarkana, Dallas/Ft. Worth, Austin, San Antonio, El Paso, Tucson, Phoenix, Yuma, and Barstow. On the return trip, I will be driving past Las Vegas, Flagstaff, Albuquerque, Amarillo, and OK City. Many people and clubs have already asked for me to stop to visit and talk ferret, but this notice is the last-chance. If you want me to stop, then you have to ask me to stop by Tuesday when I set up my driving itinerary. After Tuesday, I will contact everyone with a time and date (It will be Bob Time, which means I am never late!). Also, I'll be running around Europe in November. I have a chance to measure ferret and polecat skeletons so I can finally wind up the years++ research I've done on diferences between the domesticated ferret and the polecat. I'll be seeing the insides of many a dusty museum and breathing in the sweet vapors of several European bone labs and hopefully I can find the time to visit some zoos. I am EXTREMELY interested in meeting with European FML members. I have made (or am still confirming) visits to Poland, France, England, Germany, and the Netherlands. Some times I'll be renting a car, other times I'll be taking the rail or flying. While the trip is still months away, because I have to request specific dates to enter some of the museums and universities, I need to know as soon as possible if people want me to stop by. Lastly, I am trying to find sponsors to help fund a trip to New Zealand. I have made a rather notable discovery in the skeletons of New Zealand feral ferrets that would be of tremendous value to legalization efforts in California, but I need a larger, more random sample. If you have some funds you would love to throw away on science and you want to help scientifically prove ferrets are NOT feral risks, drop me an email and I'll give you more information. I hope to get enough private sponsors to pick up the costs of airfare, rental cars, and an occasional hot dog and Tui beer, otherwise I'll be forced into ethical prostitution and start looking for commerical johns. Mind you, I don't mind selling my ethics for an issue of this importance, but you'd all be forced to view me standing under commerical street lamps wearing tight shorts and red fishnet hose. Not that I would look bad.... Seriously, I have finally amassed the historic documents and statistical data to show MOST of the ferrets released on Zealand died without successfully breeding (understand the importance of the implication?). I've actually had a paper on the subject reviewed, but it was kicked back because the sample was too small and not random enough. If I can collect more data, I can show that--considering the numbers released, the legal protections, the private and fur-farm escapes and releases, and the ecological conditions that existed at the time, PLUS the natural history implications implied by current TB research, and more-- domesticated ferrets are of little risk to California (or even New Zealand!). I won't be able to fund such a scientific expedition for a couple more years, which is fine, but getting a paper in a major journal can take 1-2 YEARS just to get reviewed and published, so the quicker I can get over there, the quicker I can get the publishing ball rolling. Anyway, if you would like to help, email me. Bob C [Posted in FML issue 4436]