In response to Katharine who is a little suspicious about the emergency
adoption needs - I was involved as one leg of the transport.  I drove
from Louisville KY to Joliet, IL to meet with April who was driving a
van full of ferrets from their orig. location in MN to various drop off
sites of people who were willing to take ferrets for themselves as well
as act as transports for others.
 
I took 6 in my car, 3 for me and 3 to go on to TN and AL.  The ferrets
were all set up with a 24x24x12 cage, hammies, water bottles, litter
pans & food.  They had been bathed, had clean ears and trimmed nails.
 
From what I understand, Marcy is not familiar with the whole FML thing or
ferret community - she does not know ferrets - but she very kindly
stepped in when she heard of these 65 ferrets who were going to be taken
to a lab for experimentation.  She enlisted the help of April, who is
quite ferret knowledgeable, helped to organize the rescue, housing for
a period of time (maybe 2-3 weeks?) while she cleaned filthy, poop
encrusted ferrets, treated everyone for serious ear mite problems and
together they did the best they could to put together a little bit about
colors, sex, personalities, etc and put out the plea for homes.  Out of
the 65, only one was lost as he was in very poor condition.
 
April left MN with a van full of ferrets, through blizzard conditions,
was run off the road by a semi (I saw the dent and the van trashed with
spilled litter), drove many, many hours streight to make connections with
the transporters who had been arranged.
 
I know that this was a HUGE undertaking, to try to match so many people
with ferrets and work out the logistics of it all.  If one connection
fell through, everything would be thrown off (like it did, resulting in
my driving to Illinois rather than just Indiana).  I know that they
received hundreds upon hundreds of e-mails and cannot imagine what a mess
it was to try to keep things streight.  Now, some of those arrangements
have fallen through, and they are trying to fill in the holes and have to
do so quickly as the place they were allowed to house the ferrets must be
cleared very shortly.
 
I understand it can lead to questions if you don't know the whole story -
but I'm absolutely positive there's nothing suspicious going on here.
These folks are trying to do all these arrangements, along with their
full-time jobs, as well as caring for the ferrets at the same time.
They've spent a truck load of money (food, cages, gas, medecines and a
transmission) and I had a very hard time getting April to accept a $20
for gas when I met her.
 
Jerir Carel, Louisville, glad to have my new boys, Wellington, Blizzard
and Pavoratti
[Posted in FML issue 4061]