With BIG's indulgence, another long post tonight! First chance I've had
to catch up some. :)

Last weekend, Vanessa, our shelter director, and I attended the AHA
conference in Alexandria, VA for a day. It was, as all these venues
are, informative and very useful. Made some good contacts. We encourage
all shelters and ferret organizations to participate when possible in
these venues. It is a sharing environment on both sides of the shelter
and humane table. But that is an aside.

As we were "almost halfway there" we went on to Ohio to Lori Sies' to
bring almost 50 ferrets back to the Northeast for 4 states: MD, NJ, MA
while 18 stayed with FACT in CT. It can only be described as one of
those "Incredible Journey's" for a number of reasons - primarily though
to have had the privilege to meet both Lori Sies and Julie Dyke who
have expended such an enormous amount of energy and effort into
obtaining and caring for these ferrets. Both ladies, and their
volunteers deserve a tremendous accolades.

My personal, public thank you to you both and all the members of HOFA
who have been working to ensure the comfort and welfare of the ferrets
there. And there WERE a LOT of ferrets! Even though the numbers were
down, there were far more than I had ever seen in one place!

A number of folk have reported their experience to the FML readership.
I want to try to add information that I haven't yet seen posted. While
I can ditto what's been said to date, my focus will be on what may not
have been said.

Will head this off at the pass. No photos could be taken on site. I am
not saying this to flame anyone. As this was a NEGOTIATED arrangement,
I am not the least bit surprised. Conditions are not always as they
seem - and I would challenge anyone with more than 10 ferrets in their
house to allow 24/7 access to their home..... things are NOT always
pretty.... as many ferrets are total pigs especially those untrained.

But - considering the sheer numbers -- I was not uncomfortable or
concerned with the conditions.

Pics will eventually come out when and where appropriate. Haven't
gotten them done for the crew we took as yet - focus is on neutering
(5 down - 13 to go) and acclimating them to their new environment.

Cages - yes, they were small - especially for the hobs. However, as was
pointed out, only the small exterior cages were taken - the hutches
were not - so it appeared that animals were housed in shoe boxes. I am
pretty confident that that was not the case. Animals that would have
been confined in that small an area for even less than 6 months would
show physical evidence of a lack of exercise. I am a trained FURO judge
and have handled, literally, thousands of ferrets in the past 18 years.
None of these ferret show any serious lack of muscle tone. Yes, they
have been on wire bottom cages but I saw no evidence of serious foot
deformities. If anyone saw otherwise. I'd love to know and will check
the ferrets that came back with us closer. While not ideal conditions
by any stretch of the imagination, and I don't condone them, they would
probably not be considered "inhumane" by the rather limited standards
in place for breeding facilities.

Health - Julie advised us that the biggest issue they faced on their
arrival at Lori's was dehydration. Again they were thirsty - which
does not surprise me given that most animals will dehydrate under
stress - and they were stressed, being moved. But we saw no starving or
emaciated animals (starving animals seem to loose weight quicklyu, but
add it slowly in our experience with ferrets that have arrived at FACT
starving).

Only tonight I heard from Renee that she found an older ferret that had
some teeth issues that she has under her protective care while out in
Ohio. He's got a few bad teeth and is now on Carnivorcare and AD diet.
His thick fur had covered the fact that he was thin and not eating
properly. That's been taken care of.

Temperament - Nippy but not vicious. Very scared and unaccustomed to
being handled. Renee nailed it very quickly on her arrival. Pick them
up, hold them close to your body (aka on chest, shoulder) and they calm
right down upon feeling secure. Watch open toed sandals as they don't
know the difference - not unlike many other ferrets. So far, other than
some nippy, yippy girls, almost all seem to be fine to handle. Security
nips, but no serious bites among the 18 we have.

Food - they ate mink chow at the farm. Their coats show it. Oily and
orangey. So I would not get hysterical about what they are being fed.
They are not fussy - and you can move them to your food of choice
pretty quickly. (My bias again - I always feed a variety of food. My
biggest fear is having a ferret get lost and refuse to eat what is
offered to them! Have seen it happen over and over again. You may have
a preference for a particular food - but please, like kids, expose
them to many foods for their own good!).

Supplies - as has been said, Lori is okay there from what I saw - and
I commend her for directing focus henceforth to the shelters that have
taken ferrets. They all need to be vetted, neutered, and receive their
shots. We saw (nor felt!) any fleas. Perhaps mites, but they have been
quickly treated for those just in case.

Litter training - FACT uses newspapers and within 48 hours, most are
using the newspapers. These ferrets are very bright and catch on very
quickly!

Support Your Shelters - please look to see what your area shelters may
need! Especially folks willing to take time to work with these ferrets!
For ourselves, we almost doubled our adoptable list with the 18 we took
in. We need people willing to help clean cages, as we don't normally
use them - preferring the room/zone approach to housing and management.
And, these ferrets need handling by people - so they need time.
Shelters always have a lack of time -- unless retired and independently
wealthy (no one I know!). So if you can't physically volunteer - donate
some $$$'s for the shelter to hire a vet tech willing to come and work
with the ferrets. Vounteers can be in short supply - so when there's a
shortfall - hire someone! This is a temporary, and unusual situation
calling for some creativity.

Financing - any shelter that has taken any of these ferrets that is
in a bind is welcome to request support from FACT. To be honest, am
not sure how much help we can provide. But we did pull together an
emergency fund following Katrina - and we have a bit put aside in our
Mira fund. Please visit our web site if you are up against it and
complete and send in the disaster relief fund form recognizing that I
haven't adjusted it for this situation - just do the best you can (
http://www.ferret-fact.org/KatrinaReliefFund.htm ). I can't guarantee
we can do anything, but will do what we can to help in any way we can!

Am sure I haven't covered all that I should -- will be happy to expand
or add any info.

Ann Gruden
President
Ferret Assn of CT (FACT)

[Posted in FML 5753]