I want to apologize to the list for comments like " the error of his ways" in my post about how to send comments to John McPherson's syndicate's web page (for the Leaping Ferrets cartoon). Rather than making this post a rather neutral one about how to navigate a couple of traps in a web page if you wanted to make comments of a positive or critical nature, I assumed that there would be consensus with my views on the strip and biased the post. I am very sorry to have offended anyone with this rather arrogant assumption. I do want to explain why this particular cartoon struck a raw nerve with me, in the hopes that it might explain why some of us may have found little to laugh about in the cartoon. The comic echoed a situation occurring last year here in New England. A distributor who overestimated the demand for 200 ferret kits he bought, crammed the whole shipment into two tanks, not unlike the one depicted in the comic. The kits were crowded, with little food and no water, into these tanks and displayed in the distributor's store. Employee did not handle them. Of course they jumped--they were trying to get out. Of course they bit--they were frightened, and their blood sugar levels were low, making them even nippier. A complaint was lodged, the and the agriculture dept stepped in. The distributor's response to the first citation was to cram the kits into fish tanks in the store's isolation room. They were packed like sardines--no room to move or defecate or sleep, no water, food thrown in occasionally. No handling. Of course they bit. After the second complaint, the kits were dispersed to goodness knows where. One hopes they landed in good pet stores where they were given adequate space, water, food, and handling, and then sold to people who knew how to train and care for them. But most likely, they were considered unsellable (even at 20 percent off), and destroyed. So, given this prism through which to view the comic, the only punchline that I could see was that the store owner didn't care enough about his/her stock to properly house, feed, or handle them. Is this reading too much into a cartoon? Ya sure, y'betcha. Does this mean that there are no people out there involved in ferret rescue, owner education, and legalization who did find the comic funny? Nope, and it doesn't make them any less caring or sensitive than those of us who had the opposite reaction. Humor is, pardon me, a funny thing. Had the tank been full of leaping lizards, I probably would have thought nothing of it, except to note the Li'l Orphan Annie reference, while a herpetologist working in rescue may have had another reaction. My invitation to write one-panel ferret comic ideas still stands. This is the season of springtime giddiness and fools. Ferret owners are not humorless--if that were true, we couldn't put up with an animal that hides our car keys, socks, and checkbooks; takes it upon itself to rearrange our bookshelves, drawers, and lives; chooses to ignore our calls when it know it's being less than angelic; and departs our lives much too soon-- after 6-12 years of the most fun and companionship one can ask from a pet. -- Lee [log in to unmask] [Posted in FML issue 1888]