{"id":3371,"date":"2015-11-09T10:11:14","date_gmt":"2015-11-09T10:11:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/damesnet.com\/?p=3371"},"modified":"2015-11-09T10:11:14","modified_gmt":"2015-11-09T10:11:14","slug":"stinky-raging-thief","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/damesnet.com\/?p=3371","title":{"rendered":"Stinky raging thief"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Poppy\/damesnet\"<\/a>

Poppy\/damesnet<\/p><\/div>\n

Ever since a recent holiday, I\u2019ve had ferrets on the brain. Well, I can hear you mutter, better than down the trousers, for yes, ferret legging as it\u2019s called does exist but more as a sport (a sport?) than anything you hear about on The Archers<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Anyway, ferrets \u2013 derived from Mustela putorius furo, which translates as \u2018stinky raging thief\u2019 \u2013 were the centre of attention of a County Show I visited. Stopping to chat at the stall, I discovered more than I\u2019d ever dreamt of about ferret \u2018tribes\u2019, for in captivity at least they are self-selecting.<\/p>\n

What I heard gave me pause for thought, for it appears that it is always the smallest female who heads up the tribe and who decides who can \u2013 and who can\u2019t \u2013 join. And the males, of whatever size, just fall into line.<\/p>\n

The couple from the rescue organisation introduced me to Poppy, who was tiny by comparison with the others, and told me her tale. As leader, they said, she rules with a rod of iron and will fight to the death those she doesn\u2019t want in her group \u2013 of either sex. The situation had got so bad, with the number of ferrets that they were sheltering, that they had had to set up another group (or \u2018business of ferrets\u2019 as it\u2019s called) with its own leader, being careful to keep them both separate.<\/p>\n

It got me thinking how many other groupings I knew which possessed similar traits. In politics there was, of course, Margaret Thatcher. She is always pictured at the front of her cabinet, which seems to dwarf her in stature. Yet despite her reputation for handing out verbal maulings I must admit I have heard no rumours of her being a fan of physical aggression.<\/p>\n

In football, meanwhile, while we have all-male (or all-women) teams, the physio or medical side of the sport has more than a fair sprinkling of female practitioners who are held in high regard. And while the manager is nominally in charge, the doctor has a duty of care to the players which overrides what he does (or doesn\u2019t) want. Few would bet on \u2018The Chosen One\u2019 emerging unscathed from his run-in with former Chelsea club doctor Eva Careiro.<\/p>\n

Then you have the relationship between orchestras and female soloists. I caught the tail end of an interview with trumpet soloist Alison Balsom on air, in which she describes the word \u2018soloist\u2019 as being absolutely right. \u201cIt\u2019s very isolating,\u201d she says. \u201cThere is a conductor, an orchestra and me.\u201d<\/p>\n

OK, so she isn\u2019t the leader, but when soloing the orchestra follows her lead. She is sanguine about there being a musical rapport when they\u2019re playing together, but has to face down its members when being introduced to them for the first time,\u00a0 as\u00a0if<\/span> they\u2019re daring her to prove herself. By the end, she says, they\u2019re always happy to have her playing with them, while she wonders why they couldn\u2019t have been friendlier at the beginning.<\/p>\n

Finally, there\u2019s the band in which I play, which now has three female instrumentalists, and one female singer, although I flew the flag for years on my own. The rest of the band tower over us, and they talk a good talk, but when it comes to organisation we more than hold our own.<\/p>\n

Human beings may not be as extreme as ferrets but I recognise some of the traits their females, or Jills, display, whether it be in a social setting or at work. And I\u2019m not just referring to their love of disappearing for a quiet nap.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Female ferrets wear the trousers when they get together, as opposed to disappearing down them.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":3374,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,55],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/damesnet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3371"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/damesnet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/damesnet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/damesnet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/damesnet.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3371"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/damesnet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3371\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3398,"href":"https:\/\/damesnet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3371\/revisions\/3398"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/damesnet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/3374"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/damesnet.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3371"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/damesnet.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3371"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/damesnet.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3371"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}