ferret, not skunk [Was re: swinging a polecat]

[dembeldei]

No: HPFGUIDX 41266

From: GerRoJen at a... 
Date: Mon Jul 15, 2002 10:54am
Subject: Re: Swinging a pole cat?!
  ZEFF: ***During the first day of school back at Hogwarts, Our 
benevolent 
Haggrid walked into the mail hall, swinging a dead pole cat.

>Now thats odd..Now I am sure many of you know what a "pole cat" is.. 
>A skunk. And even dead they stink.. 

Actually, a polecat (Mustela putorius) is the wild ancestor of the 
domestic ferret (Mustela furo)*, and while skunks used to be 
considered part of the mustelid family, they are now not classified 
as such.    So this ties in with Hagrid's feeding ferrets to 
Buckbeak, making stoat sandwiches, and even Moody-Crouch's bouncing 
transfigured ferret Draco (though note, ferrets do NOT squeak!  They 
are not rodents-- they were used for rodent control for hundreds of 
years.  Perhaps the ferret would have SQUEALED while being bounced, 
but ferrets say 'dook' or 'wook.')

A.J.

*However far along ferrets have evolved (there is some debate that 
they should be called Mustela putorius furo), they are certainly 
descended through selective breeding from the polecat.