With all that's gone on recently it's given me a reason for some quiet
reflection.  I recall when I first got into ferrets only five years ago
and found my first internet group, Frolicking Ferrets.  It was a kinder,
gentler time.  I remember telling my boyfriend after communicating on
this group that there is actually a name for the noise that ferrets make.
"It's called a dook!  Isn't that cute".  These people are great,...they
give the ferrets nick names like woozles & wuzzles and fuzzys.....and as
a new ferret companion, I was learning so much....it was a time before I
realized that there were people involved in animal rescue for the wrong
reasons...  Before I realized that for a select few, it was about self
serving egos, politics, gossip, hatefulness and competition.  Then I
discovered the FML, ...another group of caring, intelligent people with
so much information to offer....some know more than these self proclaimed
ferret vets do!!!  Through the years what would some of us done without
Sukie, Julie Fossa and Dr. Bruce Williams?...and our beloved BIG who
faithfully provides this avenue for ferret discussion ....daily without
interruption....not to mention playing mediator to all the
insipidness.... and yeah from time to time I'm guilty of it too...
but not unless provoked.
 
Without warning ,or for what I can see ,reason, suddenly my rescue was
being attacked...by people who incidentally had never even been to my
rescue.  People, who for some reason felt that they were the judge &
jury of others.  If I rolled over, submitted and let it happen, I was
deemed guilty as charged.  If I defended myself , it just got worse and
the innocent bystanders who come here for positive feedback were subject
to it also.  Words are taken so far out of context and twisted up to mean
exactly what the perpetrator of the accusations WANTS to believe instead
of what it really is.  They think if they continue to badger you with the
same questions presented differently that it will produce a different
answer.  The Spanish Inquisition as I affectionately call it.
 
Through the years, people who I thought were friends, went in different
directions, taking up business with the most hateful & sick minds I've
ever seen..  I will never understand and I'm not going to waste energy
trying.
 
It hurt our raffles & our fundraisers.  I am aware that ours is not the
only rescue "targeted for destruction".  Am I defensive?  You bet!  But
out of respect for our innocent readers I try to do so with a sense of
humor/sarcasm...that is just my way.  I defend the work we do and these
animals to the bitter end but as someone recently pointed out to me ,
I don't have to.  "What???" I thought?  That's absurd!  Of course I
have to!
 
The gut instinct in me tells me to react to defend the lies and false
accusations but it never occurred to me that our rescue has such a tight
following of supporters that know us, that know the work we do,...and
they pay no attention to the mudslinging vermin that possess the
intelligence of a garden gnome.  Another went on to say and I quote with
his permission: It really doesn't - and shouldn't, matter whether you do
or don't test for ADV.  Or what kind of litter you use.  Or if you buy
crap food.  I think what people are forgetting is - what would be the
alternative life for that ferret if he wasn't rescued?  If you weren't
available to take in an unwanted ferret, where do you suppose he would
have ended up?  At Paris Hilton's with a first class ADV test eating
shrimp cocktail and drinking champagne on a yacht?  Jesus....
 
The very minute we are officially a "rescue/shelter" all of a sudden
people come out of the woodwork making judgements and telling us how
ferrets should be cared for.  If we don't adhere to what others feel
is right, give up our money, our social lives and our health, then we
aren't doing enough.  I hear it constantly and I'm sick of it.
 
It's about damn time people put their money where there mouth is and if
they can't take the ferrets in themselves and provide A1+++++++ care,
then they need to shut up and let others do the best they can.  We are
all doing it for the love of ferrets.  We all give up what we can in the
hopes we provide a better life for them than what they had but damn it,
it doesn't mean we are bad or wrong for not meeting other peoples
standards.  End quote
 
I used to get completely un- nerved at flames....I didn't handle that
type of stress very well.... a couple years ago I buried my mother.
She passed at a very young 70 years old.  It made me realize a lot of
things... what mattered, what didn't....plus I grew a set of balls of
steel in the process...Dr. Seuss became a philosopher of sorts in my
eyes.  He summed it up best when he said "Be who you are and say what
you feel because those that matter won't mind, and those that mind don't
matter."  How true that is.
 
Kimberly Fox
Director/Rescue Mom
Somethin Up My Sleeve Ferret Rescue
http://companiontalk.terrabox.com/SUMS-Rescue.html
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[Posted in FML issue 5379]