Have the 'flu so I'm staying away from school and the ferrets. I periodically stumble to the door and drool in their general direction and they look at me with tiny squinty brown liquid eyes. I can blame this flu on my dear sweet daughter Elizabeth, who had it last week. I hate her. I am *very* embarrassed to admit this, but, well, I figured out how I was accidentally deleteing people's email to me. The server here started accepting PPP protocals last summer, and when I upgraded to system 8 on the Mac, it came with a cute little email program, different from my old one. I didn't notice the preferences were set to delete messages when read, so everytime I opened something to see who wrote it, off it went to ether-ether land. By itself, that wouldn't be too bad because I had the downloaded versions on the hard drive, only I tossed them when I reconfigured the system, thinking I still had them in the mailbox. Not too smart, I know. Sorry, I was feverish. Actually, not bad, but as a male I like to whine when I'm icky. Q: "Do ferrets get attached to you like dogs do?" A: Yes, but its easy to break once they are neutered. Back in the 1960s, there was a movement to bring together ethnology (study of human behavior) with ethology (study of animal behavior). Lots of stuff was written, but much of it turned out to be junk. The reason was people were attributing *human* intent and desire to animal behavior, a process called anthropomorphizing. The trouble is, humans think like humans, and dogs think like dogs. Same with ferrets; assuming they think or behave like dogs would be "canidomorphizing." One of the things often cited as a proof of domestication is that polecats are strict solitary territorialists compared to ferrets, which are much more gregarious. My grouping of 21 would seem to support this, and if you have ever been to Troy Lynn's house, well, it's like Easter at the Vatican and the Pope is handing out dispensations. The difference is because a process called juvenilization has extended the ferret's juvenile phase, so it accepts other ferrets as siblings. (Other parts of juvenilization include smaller brains and jaws, and acceptance of human contact) In other words, like most guys, they never really mentally grow up. Early neutering intensifies this change in behavior. Still, even with the juvenilization of ferret territorial behavior, they will revert to the polecat standard under specific circumstances, such as during the rut, or when feral. The reason I am pointing this out is because dogs are domesticated wolves, and wolves evolved as social animals, polarized from ferrets. Accordingly, it is unlikely their thinking, intent and behavior are *necessarily* similar. In other words, ferrets think like ferrets; not polecats, dogs, cats, or people. It is not logical to assume they would bond in the same way to a human as a dog would, and in my experience, they don't. Does that mean they are not affectionate? Not in the slightest. When I come home from school and set on the floor in my living room, the ferrets start trickling over until nearly all of them have greeted me and recieved their "hullo" scratch. Foster, Bear, Stella, Chrys, Tori, Sandy, Daye, and now Carbone all seek me out and actually prefer to sleep either on me or next to me. Jet will run at top speed and jump into my arms. If I am busy, they will lay at my feet, and if I ignore them, they stand on their hind legs and put their forefeet on my leg. If I ignore them too long, Amber, Sandy and Daye will give me a tiny nip. Now I can't say they love me; that is a human emotion. But I do know they like to be around me, seek me out, and will sleep in my "spot" on the futon when I am gone. All come to the sound of my voice, all know their names, and all will stop playing and come to me when I call. I can't read their minds, nor can I deduce their intent, so all I can say is they demonstrate what I percieve as "ferret love," not to be confused with muskrat love. The confusing thing is, behaviors tend to seem similar from species to species, they may in fact form a kind of continuum. However, those very basic behaviors are also shaped by learning or other environmental events, so it is hard to say that what a dog feels is similar to what a ferret feels, even if the stimuli are the same. Also, some people think no animal has feelings, but I reject that premise because ferrets show fear, they show desire, and they show anger, to name a few emotions. They play, they problem solve, and they quite literally get angry. BUT, just because they have ferret emotions, it does not also follow that those emotions are the same as ours. The bottom line is, don't expect ferrets to be dogs unless you don't mind people expecting the same from you. They are different, and how they react with people is different. Still, the percieved affection and closeness I get from my ferrets is as strong or stronger than any I have recieved from dogs. It is just different, and people who want dog love should buy a dog rather than expecting to get it from a ferret, and vice versa. Bob C and the 21 MO Love Pups [Posted in FML issue 2070]