Merry Christmas to All Humans and Fuzzies,
 
I could do with some advice.  Back in the summer, when Tigger & I were
out for a walk, I was stopped by a lady and her young son who wanted to
know about ferrets.  They had had theres since the spring and had been
feeding "it" on cat food and keeping "it" on sawdust.  They usually
referred to their ferret as it and told me they still hadn't named it.
(Worry no. 1.)
 
I visited their place, brought Yesterdays News litter and James
Wellbeloved food (as we can't get Totally Ferret in the UK anymore).  I
gave them the FML info, strongly suggested they get pet insurance as the
mother is on benefits, in short, told them all I knew and where to get
further info.  I thought initially their fert was a female as "it" was
tiny and asked them to take the ferret to the vets for a general health
check and distemper jab.
 
On Saturday 11th Dec I got a text from the son at 11.30am saying "The
ferrit has had a stroke, its in a lot of pain."  It turned out they had
heard a bang in the cage at 3am.  I called the mother immediately, she
said "It's crippled, in pain and half dead."  I said she needed to take
the ferret to the vets urgently and she said she couldn't afford it.
If the son hadn't texted me, God knows what would have happened.
 
Very long story short, in a nightmare of panic, I managed to borrow a
car from the local garage, drive to theirs, collect the ferret with her
son and take them to the nearest vet where he was kept in overnight and
Sunday night.  I kept the family up to date with his progress which was
good but when I told them on Monday am the bill was #103, they went
silent.
 
I collected the ferret, confirmed as a very tiny male on the Monday
afternoon as they had not been in touch and I didn't want the bill
mounting up especially as he was well enough to leave.  As I had a long
journey planned that evening, a friend said they would look after Spike.
 
I spoke to the mother on the next day, she didn't ask how Spike was, just
kept shouting at me and telling her son that I was keeping the ferret.  I
kept repeating, you can have him back on the 21st after his followup appt
as he must keep it but she wouldnt let me speak to her son and kept
repeating I was stealing their ferret.
 
The mothers boyfriend then called the vets, was extremely abusive saying
that I had abducted the ferret and why did they not ID people that
brought in animals?  My vet put the phone down on them.
 
I didn't want to cause any upset and the RSPCA advised me to return the
ferret.  I did so with a friendly letter giving info on the FML, pet
insurance, PDSA and anything else I could think that might help.  Sadly,
they're not keeping the followup appointment and though I offered to
help pay the vet bill, the mother hasn't contacted me.
 
I really don't know what to do.  He's a beautiful ferret with possibly
epilepsy, (the son thought he had had a few fits) and I don't know what
else.  The ferret is left on his own, sometimes for days at a time and
his med bills will grow.  The pet insurance will be #6 per month but
they won't insure him.
 
What can I do?
[Posted in FML issue 4733]