ferrets, estrogen and lunch

the conversation at the table next to me today at lunch at the depressing food court on the UCSD campus. I was eating a grapefruit.

"Do you know anything about puppy breeding?"

"You mean, like, 'you need to put two dogs together when the bitch is in heat?'"

"no. like for cats. I know cats shouldn't have kittens the first time they go into heat. They CAN have kittens, but that doesn't mean they should."

"I know about ferrets. What's interesting in the ferret literature is how different they are from other domestic animals. Ferret estrogen levels increase by 300% when they go into heat. If they don't breed in a few seasons they die."