Nine Ferrets from the massive Ohio Ferret Rescue have arrived here in
Massachusetts at South Shore Ferret Care
There has been quite a bit of information about the situation, the
rescue site and what is needed from everyone to help out. I thought
that many people would be interested in knowing how some of these
ferrets are doing since they have been rescued and transported to their
new locations.
We were able to act quickly and arrange for one of the first transports
from Ohio and these nine ferrets are now in a safe quarantined
environment here in Massachusetts at South Shore Ferret Care. We were
hopeful that somehow the complex situation would be remedied and chose
to forego the Ferret Symposium in order to make preparations to receive
and care for them.
The ferrets arrived late Thursday night. They all were made comfortable
in individual cages, with fresh water, food, and donated hammocks. The
appeared to be as exhausted as their transporters travelling more than
ten hours by car to our location just south of Boston. It was nearly
two am before each one was settled in at their new location.
Over the past several days we have noticed many things about them. Even
though they are very oily and a bit dirty, there are no fleas or ticks
on them. They do "poof" a bit as they are very nervous being moved
about, relocated and are scared to come out of their cages. We are very
careful to encourage them to come out on their own and coax them with a
bit of Ferretone (yes, they love it and we are using a lot of it).
Although they are timid to trust people, but appear to want to be
friendly. They love the sound of human voices. They love attention and
immediately look in your eyes when spoken to using soothing tones in
our voices. They turn their head from side to side drinking in every
word and sound from the people showing them kindness and gentleness.
They love hanging hammocks and soft bedding. Most of their lives they
never had anything soft or anything that took their weight off of a
hard wired surface. They love to stretch out full length, yawn and sigh
(as they never had enough room to do so before). They check their food
and water bowls constantly eating any type of ferret food offered to
them (we are giving them a mix of quality ferret food) no explanation
needed here they were quite skinny upon arrival.
They aren't very coordinated. When we were letting them out of their
cages they would put a paw on the floor and draw it back quickly. They
would repeat this several times (like a cat walking in water). Then it
dawned on us that they have likely never walked on a floor before. It
took a couple of days before they could run a bit on the rugs and we
watched with tears in our eyes as each one has war-danced and dooked
for us. If we sit on the floor each has come over to check us out. Some
have climbed into our laps, crawled on our back and become fascinated
in our hair. They talk constantly as they explore their new surrounding
with a constant little chitter that we can only imagine is "happy
talk". Yes, we have actually received some kisses from them.
Tomorrow five of them will be going to the vet's for their assessment,
rabies vaccination and ADV blood test. Our one female will be spayed
and four of the males neutered. On Wednesday the other four males will
be assessed, vaccinated with ADV blood tests as well.
We could certainly not have had the ability to help with the care of
these ferrets without many "behind the scenes" angels helping us to
help them. There are many to name but we are especially grateful to
Rose German of Little Feet Ferret Retreat who put up a ten piece
bedding set on eBay which raised funds, as well as making the long trek
to retrieve the ferrets arriving from Ohio to New York to Massachusetts
and Michele Paulhus to opening her home to these ferrets providing them
with love and a safe quarantine area to transition to.
All of the ferrets now have names, we are taking pictures (here is the
link of the initial pictures and we will be adding more to this album:
http://cards.webshots.com/invite/pickup/134940380JkmZ/album/560901245LMGHiG
And here is a little information about them:
Turbo -- mostly white large male, with a slightly deformed ear, black
tail and black spot on his back. He is a little character who enjoys
litter box rides down the ramp crashing it to the bottom of the cage
and war dancing on the top ramp for us as if he saying, "wow what a
cool ride!"
Meelo -- dark sable medium sized male who is a bit under the weather,
he isn't eating as much as the others and is a little too quiet so he's
receiving a health check right away. He is having his first taste of
soup today and has eaten a bit of it.
Pipsqueak ("Pippy") our little cream sable girl who is currently in
heat. She is being assessed and spayed tomorrow morning pending her
blood work for platelet count. She is quite tiny and missing most of
her bottom teeth. We will have the vet see what dental issues she has
as well.
Levis -- a medium sized blonde sable boy who uses his "monkey paw"
technique to grab levis jeans and get your attention.
Twitch -- a medium sized brown mitted boy who leaps all four paws in
the air and twitches as part of his war dance.
Goliath -- (also known as "Simba") super sized young male with a gerber
baby face who looks into your eyes as if to say "Mama".
Blazor- a medium sized blaze male, grey with a white thunder bolt in
his head, burgundy eyes, possibly deaf.
Uno -- a medium brown mitted boy with a special distinction, he only
has one
Dudelee -- a large brown and white and gold sable boy with a layed back
disposition as if lounging in his hammock he is saying "Hi Dude".
We will continue to need help from people to help the Lori and the
rescue site as well as more localized assistance from people in
Massachusetts. After tomorrow we will have a better idea of what
medical costs will be initially for vaccinations, testing, spaying and
neutering as well as their ongoing care. We will continue to need help
with day to day items such as: Ferretone, Paper Towels, Old Daily
Newspapers, Ferret Bedding, Laundry Detergent, Quality Ferret Food,
and Beechnut Chicken Baby Food.
In addition South Shore Ferret Care we will be holding a special fund
raiser at our next event: Supportive at-home Care for Ill & Elderly
Ferrets,
Date: Saturday, October 20th Time: 12Noon -- 2pm
Location: Old Derby Animal Hospital, 40 Recreation Park Dr. Hingham,
MA 02043.
To register or for information on how you can help us,
Contact Diane Wall at: [log in to unmask]
[Posted in FML 5749]
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