WAIT A MINUTE, FOLKS!
 
A lot of you most well-intentioned, ferret loving people just gave
Anonymous the WORST possible advice!
 
Anonymous needs HELP, not an excuse to make him/her feel better about
"getting rid" of a troublesome pet or justification for being angry at the
animal.
 
Fact #1 for those who don't know:
Surrendering a ferret to a shelter is the very LAST resort.  Shelters
are NOT a "free dumping ground" for owners with either lame excuses or
uneducated reasons.  For anyone who needs/wants more information on this,
read the article at
http://www.geocities.com/ferretsfirst/sheltershock.html
 
Many shelters, bless them, are far too eager to take in a ferret.  They
spend priceless resources of time and emotion on ferrets that COULD have
stayed in their homes.  There are no "perfect" ferret homes.  Deal with it.
 
Fact #2:
The most common reason for surrendering ferrets is "too much trouble/not
enough time".  Translated into reality, this means "I don't know how or
I'm not willing to take the necessary actions to make ferret maintenace
easy or protect my home from instinctive ferret behavior."
 
I find the above reason to be the LEAST acceptable reason for surrendering
a ferret.
 
Yes, there ARE good reasons.  And, depending on the owner's lifestyle
and/or character of the owners, this reason sometimes (but VERY rarely)
becomes an acceptable reason.  For instance, if the ferret is being abused
because of the behaviors and the owners are too self-absorbed to alter
their lifestyle to accomodate the ferret's needs: as in putting down
carpet protecter at doorways while the ferret is out to play, waiting till
he's pooped in the cage before letting him out, several short playtimes
instead of one long one, keeping chew temptations out of reach, etc.
 
Many times, in our attempts to "help" the ferrets, we overlook the best
approach in favor of the most expedient.  We say "dump" the problem
instead of helping to "solve" the problem.  (I fear that's a product of
our "microwave", instant gratification culture.)
 
Not one of Ferret X's problems are unsolvable.  Most of them, actually,
are due to the owner's failure to plan and prepare.
 
"Not enough time" by the way, is also a lousy excuse.  15 minutes a couple
of times a day during the week with a couple of hours a day on a week end
is VASTLY preferable to death from shelter shock.  Lifesyles change,
people.  Just as "not enough time" happened, so can "a little more time"
happen.  We didn't know we were going to have "less time" in a couple of
years when we first got the ferret.  NOR do we know that we won't have
"more time" a couple of years from now.
 
If every ferret owner that ever experienced "too much trouble" or "not
enough time" DUMPED their ferrets on a shelter, THERE WOULD BE NO FERRET
OWNERS, ONLY SHELTERS.
 
Giving the ferret to a new owner isn't much better... the underlying
problem STILL hasn't been solved.  The remotes are STILL within reach of
the other ferrets, one of the other ferrets may develop a 'need' to dig
carpet... and then there's another ferret to be dumped somewhere.
 
Anonymous, please check out the articles at my website.  You are more
than welcome to email me if you have any questions, or if whatever you
try isn't effective.  I would like to help you learn to alter Ferret X's
unacceptable behaviours.  I've had excellent results in dealing with these
very same problems.  And, thank you for honestly addressing this issue.
 
==
Debi Christy
Ferrets First Foster Home
http://www.geocities.com/ferretsfirst/
[Posted in FML issue 3582]