Austin’s KVUE News reported yesterday on a man, possibly in Brazil, who made a shocking discovery about his two pet poodles. Specifically, he learned that they are not poodles at all, but rather ferrets jacked up on steroids.

The unsourced story is certainly good for a shocked guffaw, except that it set off my NCD (Nerd Compulsive Disorder, which I hope to lobby for inclusion in the DSM-VI) when it described the two beasts as “giant rodents pumped with steroids to look like dogs.” Bad KVUE, bad!

The domesticated ferret, known to zoologists and geeks as Mustela putorius furo, is a placental mammal in the order Carnivora. Other well-known members of Carnivora includes dogs, cats, raccoons, meerkats, wolverines, honey badgers, lions, tigers, and bears (shut up.) Continue reading →