Dear FMLer's
We've certainly received a great deal of interest and many varied
responses from the post where I queried breeders about their general
selling practices.  I was greatly impressed and pleasantly relieved by
the breeder's responses.  I learned from the breeders who responded that
they are GREATLY concerned about spaying & neutering and if the animal
is not fixed when sold, a contract is signed saying the animal will be
spayed after a certain age.  Some even gave spay/neuter rebates.
Thank you for the valuable information.
 
The little ferret-in-the-ball, "Roxy", is doing very well.  She's playing
a bit, now, rushing behind the furniture only to reappear with her tail
just HUGE!  I've never seen such a constant bottle brush!  She's a sweet
little scrap of fur.  We plan to have her spayed in 2 weeks, if her weight
continues to go up.  She's getting a little cheeky with her food- she
carries her bowl around the cage until she can hide the whole thing, which
usually ends up half-buried in her litter box.  Our vet is quite taken
with Roxy.  Even after she poofed on his chest when he held her.
 
We were abit taken back by the shelter/breeder who responded so vehemently
to the post regarding breeder questions.  We did not identify the
breeder/shelter in our post, but she sure did!  The fact is, the couple who
turned the ferret in to us described where & how they purchased Roxy at the
ferret event.  They described the seller's table and gave us the genealogy
chart along with the breeder's invoice from the vet for this 23 month old
baby's FIRST distemper shot, which was administered 11 days before the
ferret event.  The rabies vaccine was given 3 days before the event.  He
did not give us a spay/neuter agreement.  The baby never received her 2nd
or 3rd Distemper booster.  We did not intend to get into a pissing contest
with anyone.  Merely stating the facts as given directly to us and trying
to learn more about ferret breeders to better help these little guys.
 
Because of this incident, we probably will not allow the sale or adoption
of ferrets directly at the Va. State Fair Show this year.  The State Fair
is not a good place to screen prospective ferret-parents.  Breeders &
shelters will have to hand out business cards and make appointments for
potential sales & adoptions.
 
It has certainly been an eye-opening experience to have multiple
threatening telephone messages left (our children, unfortunately, heard
several of these calls.) & threatening e-mail messages as well.  We hope
that the shelter/breeder will understand that it was a mistake for the
Show to have allowed a sale, the Vet should have noticed that the baby did
not have all her shots and that the State Fair crowd is probably not the
best group of potential adopters to choose from.  We, as a shelter, hope
that everyone will work together to help insure a safe, happy, healthy
environment for any ferret.  Roxy says "Thank you" to everyone who has
said a prayer for her.  Your prayers are working!
 
Marlene B.
Richmond Ferret Rescue League
[Posted in FML issue 3313]