I'm back now. I'm Edward Lipinski coming to you from an island just east of Rainey Town Seattle. Long time no see, read nor ruminate on the chatter here on this list. Maybe that's a blessing in disguise because I sure do get anal reading some of the postings and can barely contain myself from responding with utmost vigor. My first question: Why are so many of us absolutely fearful of being flamed? From what I see, most of the flaming is blowtorching the messenger rather than the message. Often the flamer is making assumptions that have no basis whatsoever in fact. I wonder if the readiness to scorch is coming mostly from emotion rather than a sincere dedication to the facts at hand. I personally welcome being attacked (flamed) because it brings out the real personality (and brains) of the scorcher. It also gets right down to the core issue that is THE assumed irritant to the scorcher. My feeling is that I welcome the "hot breath" of misdirected anguish, illogical assumptions, and naked hatred. Scorching vehemence is, to me, an intellectual microscope into the heart of the scorcher. As our great president says, "is" may be "is," depending on how you define "is." Dumb like a fox. Church is. What better way to get shelter operators to open up and spill their guts. The accusation is one of being collectors (of ferrets). I couldn't think of a better way to get a class of people to "open up" than by a derogatory criticism of them in general. My only question is: so what's the big deal about being a collector? Maybe better one should ask just how the collector is taking care of the "collection" given the circumstances at the geriatric wards in the shelters. 2nd Querry: The poster from New Zealand was it? who spoke to the issue of bovine TB being vectored by feral ferrets . . . is he sure that the vector is not the badger? Reason: several nites ago, saw a short TV news segment about the suspected vector of bovine TB in England being the British badger. The clip showed a couple of feral badgers loping down a grassy trail and they did not resemble our Amerikanischer badger at all. Their body and head shape closely resembled that of the martin or fisher, with the exception that their heads were striped, like the typical badger. Anybody else see that TV news clip? 3rd Querry: Have two testiculated ferrets that lick my hand, fingers, beard, chin, lips, nose, etc every chance they get. No attempt to bite. Why do they do this? I would guess they like what they're tasting with their tongues. Do I taste good? Maybe to them I do. Maybe its a sign of "brotherhood." Sometimes I notice they will repeatedly lick the back of the necks of other ferrets - kinda like monkeys that groom each other, much to their mutual content. So if your ferret starts licking your hand, could be he's doing the ferret equivalent of grooming. Enjoy. 4th: Ferrets are subterranean dwellers by grace of their genetic constitution. Consider the native Amerikanische Black-footed Ferret. A ground dweller if there ever was one. Methinks the domesticated one has a strong kinship in this regard. I notice out on the digging grounds (I stake my ferrets out on 3-foot leash lines to a steel posts) my he-males immediately start digging and soon have a tunnel dug. They invade their tunnels and turn around, curl into a "C," always pointing their heads to the tunnel mouth. On the other hand, my its ("its" being my terminology for males with no balls) rarely dig to the extent of tunneling. They seem content to surface lie. It would appear that their negativity toward lumens or light is strongly diminished, possibly as a factor that they are not he-males. Which class of ferrets suffer the greater incidence of adrenal disease? The "its," right? In the ferretarium housing our 40 or so Frettchens however, all the ferrets will bury themselves, often with quiet deliberation, until they are totally covered by the nest towel. If their cage is provided with an enclosed nest box, they always reside therein. Now the question is: Do ferrets secrete themselves for the security of their burrow, even when they're not in a burrow, or do they secrete themselves to avoid lumens? Or both? They for sure show a preference for security and the dark. The high reflectivity of their retinas (green glowing eyes at night) and the remnant infra-red sensors above each eye strongly suggest a highly developed capability of nocturnal predation, both subterranially and above. 5th Querry. When will that new mother with an infant and 5 ferrets be rushing to the hospital to have the infant's face or scalp sutured to close the multiple lacerations that will be inflicted upon that innocent infant by those 5 doggedly persistent ferrets to get at that infant (mother's own words)? I predict this is a disaster just waiting to happen. Too, too bad. Why doesn't the American Ferret Association issue a nationally publicised warning to protect against potential disasters such as this? [log in to unmask] [Posted in FML issue 2515]