I hardly ever post here, but I do read when something catches my eye.
 
I have ferret "I" from the rescue
(http://www.pooflinger.com/hagerstown/ferrets5.html
is where his picture is at).
 
Irving Griswald is his new name and he's a goof.  Now, I don't like to
"toot" about him being a Hagerstown kid, and wouldn't have posted at all
regarding the adoption (that also included two wonderful non-Hagerstown
kids from Rocky's, Silly and Stormy) if someone hadn't requested
information.  Irving is a wonderful ferret, but he's not more special to
me JUST because he came from Di Bachmann.  He's my favorite, but then
again, they all are.
 
He does have some interesting, and some saddening, habits about him
though.  When he wakes up he feels the need to go and check each of the
four food dishes he's got access to, as if he is making sure they're all
still full.  When they are, THEN he feels he can go potty (and he uses
the box!).  Two days after he came he managed to get up on my headboard
and knock an entire garbage can of Pepsi cans and poopy paper towels onto
my bed.  When I walked in to him rolling around in his nifty new "toy" he
stopped and just lay down.  I could see in his eyes the thought of, "Oh
no, here comes the smack."  Instead, I picked up the mess and gave him
a roll of CLEAN paper towels to play with and shred.  (He has plenty of
toys, but doesn't know what to do with half of them.)  At first he had
no clue what to do, and didn't realize that he was *allowed* to enjoy
himself.
 
Irving is the only ferret I've ever seen who is *grateful.*  My other
kids, even the ones rescued, seem to be excited to be alive, but not
grateful.  Irving, when he looks at me, or lays on my bed with me, or
doesn't get yelled at for playing with THE most annoying jingly ball
at four am, just seems grateful.  He'll sit on the bed in front of the
window fan and just sniff the fresh air coming in.
 
He never fails to make me cry.  The horrific conditions of the rescue,
the pictures that I saw...those upset me.  They hurt and angered a part
of me that I'd long forgotten I had.  But once I had that boy in my arms,
once I got kisses from him on the day that I met him, THAT was when the
reality of the situation sunk in.  To go back through the pictures of the
shed itself, not the individual ferret pictures, and know that my boy is
one of those shown just breaks my heart.
 
Irving spent the first years of his life making babies.  That's all he
was- a breeder ferret used to make more "ribbon winners."  It'll never
happen again.  Not for Irving, or for any of the other Hagerstown kids.
These kids are finally getting a chance to LIVE, not just to exist for
someone's selfish purposes, and it's sickening that someone would even
try to overshadow that with disgusting rumors.
 
And, for the record, I'm a Pooflinger.  I have been for over two years.
We Pooflingers are a great breed, I believe.  We've got the "Poof Fund"
that some of us donate to monthly- it's gone to aid both the Wedding
Weez rescue and the Hagerstown rescue.  We've got individuals among our
members that offer services and products (hammies, playsacks, crocheted
eggs and snakes, etc.) to people in exchange for donations to shelters.
There has not been one time in my time as a Pooflinger that someone has
asked for help from the group, be they shelter or individual, and not
gotten it.  What makes us different from the rest of the ferret
community?  I think it's our open-mindedness.  I've learned not to put
blind faith in people because of things I've learned through that group,
and I'm glad.  In reality, I've saved myself a lot of heartache by not
jumping on the wagon and following people blindly.  I've made lots of
friends through the group, at the same time - people that I'm PROUD to
know and associate with.
 
Ellen and the Pooflingin' Baker's Dozen
[Posted in FML issue 4274]