For those who have lined up to take a swipe at me over Rosie and the
way things went down with all this, a few things I would like to remind
you of.
 
Rosie's adoption was legal, they are the ones who screwed up, not us.
Rosie and I don't know how many other ferrets they have were moved out
to a garage they were no longer wanted-kept-or allowed in the house and
if you have never been to southern Indiana, you have no idea what our
summers are like, we have temps that will be in the nineties with
humidity to match.  If her adoption had not been legal, they would have
been able to demand we give her back to them and we would have had to
comply.
 
Rosie spent 2 weeks on the streets, that in of itself was a miracle that
she survived or another animal didn't get her and then she went to Animal
Control where she spent 2 weeks in a place with people who know little
to nothing about ferrets, a place that is not set up to take in ferrets,
where the director had made the decision if she was not claimed or
adopted right away she would be put down.
 
Her former family didn't have the means to pay for her surgery and Rosie
should have not had to suffer because they couldn't afford it.  As the
husband told me, if you think she is in bad shape you should see another
one we have, she is in even worse shape.  I am not sure why he told me
that, for shock effect possibly.
 
We are the ones who scrimped and saved, sacrificed and did without over
a 4-week period in order to get her surgery for her not them.  It was
not a matter of us keeping Rosie away from her former owners as someone
suggested, I think people are forgetting the time-factor; the state
automatically gives a person X-number of days to locate a lost pet and if
they are not claimed within that time frame, ownership of the animal is
dissolved, the animal becomes legal property of the state, and then the
facility holding that animal is free to decide to either adopt them out
or put them down on behalf of the state.  With 3 animal facilities in
the city, newspaper running ads for people in the lost and found for FREE
not to mention all the vets they could have contacted, you would think
somewhere in that 4 weeks' time they could have tried just a little
harder at finding her.  Even their vet Dr. T admitted they did little
to nothing to locate her, he said they told him they called Animal
Control a total of 3 times within that first two weeks asking if anyone
had brought in a stray ferret but neglected to leave a name or phone
number to contact if one came in, and those were his words, not mine.  We
live 60 miles away from where all this happened and yet Rosie's plight
was made known to us and we stepped up to take her and try to give her a
better life.
 
When their vet called me, in all honesty Dr. T. had no idea what all was
going on nor did he know how bad a shape Rosie was in but I made sure he
received digital pictures showing the extent of her adrenal disease.  He
also had no idea of all screaming and cursing and threats but when he
called them, he found out for himself, THAT is why he said he was washing
his hands of the whole matter.  How many vets will turn their backs on
clients and the animals they have without good reason??
 
The day that woman called me to see about getting her back, I had two
very simple questions that I needed answers to before I could send her
back to them.  I had already given my permission to give this woman my
phone number, I had told them where we lived when she asked me, if I had
been trying to do something mean, hateful, or underhanded, I would have
never talked to her.  I would have denied having Rosie but no, I did the
right thing, I told her yes we had her, I was not trying to hide anything
from anyone.  All I wanted to know was why it took them so long to find
her with all the resources they had at their fingertips and why had her
adrenal disease been let go for so long and I don't see either of those
questions being unreasonable, I had the ferret's best interest at heart.
I spoke to them a total of 3 times, talked to their vet once and not
ONCE, not even one time did they inquire about how she was doing.  I was
not asked if she was eating, was I giving her plenty to eat, I was not
asked if she was depressed or not, I was not asked ANYTHING about her
health or well-being.  No they treated her more like she was a book left
on a bus, a possession they were trying to get back.  Dr. T. himself
never asked me how she was doing.  He did tell me that it was his
understanding Rosie had IBD but as I told him I had not seen any evidence
to that effect, Rosie was eating like a little pig, she loved her treats,
and she had HOURS and HOURS everyday out of her cage and she seemed to be
very happy, having made the adjustment into our home.  If that had been
me and one of my ferrets got out and God forbid it ever happens, one of
mine may get our before lunch but you can bet your bottom dollar I will
be moving heaven and earth to find him or her.  If one of ours got out
and made it someone's house, the first thing I would do is thank that
person for taking my ferret in and caring for them.  I would then be
asking about their welfare and if we could make some arrangements on me
getting my ferret back.  I heard nothing like this from those people, not
one time did she say lady I hope you are taking good care of our ferret,
we love her very much and would like to get her back.  Not one time did
she say anything even close to that.  No, she starts screaming at me
because I dared to ask my two questions.
 
To me this is like the age-old question, do we give the child back to the
biological mother, the "real" mother or do we look for a better home??
Yes at one time Rosie belonged to them, but they weren't taking care of
her, they couldn't afford her or her surgery, here we come along just
wanting to help this little critter with no inkling of the hell that
would come from it but we had committed to doing all we could for her
and I was not about to go back on my word or the promise I made to her.
If Rosie had had her surgery 18 months ago or even a year ago, she would
have stood a much better chance.  We didn't know how bad a shape she
was in and neither did our vet.  Someone suggested maybe their vet knew
better than our vet but that never came into play, it all came down to
dollars and cents, they didn't have the means for her surgery, they
couldn't do what needed to be done for Rosie but we could and we moved
forward on it.  Yes Rosie died during the recovery phase of the surgery
but she had NO chance without the surgery.  The right adrenal tumor was
wrapped around her vena cava and as doc told us, Rosie would have been
getting into major trouble in very short order and then it would have
been a death-watch until it was over.  As doc told us, this really was
the best way for Rosie to go, he said he could see she was happy and in
no pain.
 
Now if you want to fault me in any way for any of this, you go right
ahead, we all know there is a certain group that has to find fault and
point fingers.  BUT, the fact remains, Rosie was ours, we loved her, we
were working hard on giving her a better life.  Everything we did for her
was done with a tremendous amount of love and caring.  Every day we had
her, she received good food, I don't know what she was eating before
coming to our house but apparently what she was being fed did not agree
with her because she did wonderfully on what we feed; there were no signs
of diarrhea or constipation.  She had clean bedding, she had toys to play
with, she was in the house with us with central air, not locked away in a
dark hot garage.
 
The bottom line is, if her former owners had cared so much about her,
they would have done better by her.  If they couldn't afford the costly
surgery, let someone else take her that has the means to provide her with
the medical care she so desperately needed.
 
Loved and missed by her former owners??  I think not.  We were there for
her we took care of her, we assumed all her medical expenses, we came up
with the money for her surgery, we loved her and did the best we could
for her, not them.  If she had been loved so much as one group keeps
trying to insist she was, Rosie along with all their other ferrets would
not have been shoved out into the garage, they would have tried harder to
find her, they would have found a way to get her the surgery she needed.
Why else would we have agreed to take her if we were not sincere in
trying to help her and provide her with a better quality of life??  So
we could pour hundreds of dollars down a rat hole??  I think not.  Our
intentions were just as I have said they were, to help her and give her
a better quality of life.  So if it makes you feel superioir to call her
Jose or to take swipes at me, go for it because I know what we did or
attempted to do for her and I also know what we didn't do.  I feel
absolutely nothing for her former owners, the only thing I feel is
heartbroken over Rosie having been neglected for so long and in the
process eliminating any chance she had at someone helping her.  I don t
regret the money we spent on her, on a surgery that didn't help, what I
regret is her little life being wasted.
 
I find it very irronic that condolences are being sent to people who
couldn't have cared less if Rosie lived or died, they made that very
clear in the way she was treated or lack thereof.  We cared what happened
to her and that is why we did what we did.
[Posted in FML issue 4918]