I was glad to see the explanation of why the ferret eating the chicken had its mouth bleed, but sad to see that it was given as if the individual felt he had to justify mentioning the incident. Knowing that Bob was NOT upset by the original letter, I had to wonder if others were and made the poster aware. Bob took NO offence at the occurrence; I know because I gave him a "heads-up" on the letter since he's so busy. Actually, ANYONE in the sciences HAS to learn to deal with multiple viewpoints and evidence of all sorts. Reasonable challenges aren't upsetting because they tend to lead to refinements, and I can tell you that from his reply to my alert that Bob was not even the least tiny bit upset about the report being made; he was curious for further details for his records (details which fortunately appeared in the later letter). My suspicion (after multiple conversations over the years, and from knowing how discussions in the sciences progress) is that he likely would have been upset if anyone thought that he or she could not be frank enough in response so that learning could take place. Anyone in such a field will have stories about marvelous and invigorating conversations which left all participants glowing, but which were viewed by outsiders as being "confrontational" or "argumentative" simply because folks liked to really get their teeth into the subject matter and had been taught over years to do exactly that with problems. It's sort of like the business types having their own codes sometimes for how to dress and who sits where -- an occupational norm which is anticipated and enjoyed. Empty criticisms wouldn't be appreciated (at all), of course, but information which can lead to compiling some nice hard data or making refinements, and intelligent arguments which lead to clearer thinking are treats. So, anyway, I just hope that no one jumped on the gent for mentioning that the bleeding happened in that situation. Bob's bigger than that; folks have to be in his profession. ('Course, he wouldn't say that for modesty's sake.) I can personally see how a strand of muscle or some other types of soft tissue could cause gum cutting, but not fat. If it actually was fat perhaps it would be wise to check the gum health of the ferret. Cheweasels might help improve that, but it may be that tartar scraping is needed. [Posted in FML issue 2659]