Wow, seriously.
Someone takes on the responsibility of pet ownership, and perhaps does
it exceedingly well for six, seven years.
Then, over the course of a three-day weekend, they become BAD people.
Because they did not have enough money in the bank to put their animal
down THAT particular week or weekend.
Really? Are we that divisive? If so, then why, I ask, WHY are we
asking for ferrets to be "legal" at all? Why not keep them a "luxury"
item, and given the same rigorous upkeep standards we hold for tigers,
meercats, and the like? Why do we WANT them to be "mainstream" animals
yet also want them to be held to a level of personal accountability
that mainstream pets and their owners are not?
I am personally disgusted by the nature of the posts on this forum
as pertains to this topic. It is an unpopular topic, yes. It is an
unpleasant idea to manifest, agreed. But it is something that no
responsible pet owner should leave unresolved.
It's always a TERRIBLE THING, until it happens to you.
Anyone remember Hurricane Katrina? The hundreds of ferrets in the
affected areas that perished as owners tried to save themselves and
their pets? When shelters were stranded, when supplies ran out? How
many people in the Ferret Nation condemned loving owners then, for
doing what they felt necessary? How many, I ask, got into a plane, car,
or boat and helped save a few? It's terribly easy to judge another
person's actions through the relative safety of the internet. Point is,
we DO NOT know what we would do if a similar catastrophe were to occur
to us; mainly because it is human nature to live with the assumption
that such a thing could not happen to us.
These are terribly unpleasant things to consider, I know. Having
watched my own father suffer and die from cancer, while pain medication
became less and less effective, I know the feeling exactly. And I dare
anyone to confront my own decisions and actions with Hospice during
that time. We offered my suffering father a relief from pain in a
desperate, awful time, knowing the ultimate cost. We did so not out of
convenience, or out of fear. We did so out of love, and the willingness
to sacrifice our own peace, perhaps for the rest of our own lives, for
the peace we offered our beloved.
Do not. Begin. To tell me what that horrific decision is like. Do. Not.
Perhaps I am not the best choice for this type of list. Because I
suffer right along with my pets. I stay awake when they are sick,
feeding them through an eyedropper and picking up their poop as they
lay it. I hold them when I feel that I can, and I restrain myself from
holding them when I know that I will cause them more distress than
comfort. I have watched a ferret die in the embrace of his fellows,
breathing shallowly, then not at all, when every millimeter of my being
wanted to grab and hold him, when I literally had to scream into a
pillow, so that he could have the peace and the dignity that he needed.
To put our own needs aside, financial or emotional, to care for the
ones we choose to take in as our own -- that is. In my estimation, the
very definition of a good parent, whether the child be two or four
legged.
It's like when I read posts that admonish people not to buy ferrets
from pet stores, in favor of a shelter. While on paper I can certainly
see their point, I have to wonder what they think happens to the unsold
ferret at the pet store. Is that pet re-homed to a shelter? Or is that
pet euthanized, either directly, through a vet, or through being
returned to the breeder? Likely it is the latter. So every ferret that
you do NOT purchase is a healthy animal that is likely to be put down,
or worse, sold at a steep discount to someone who has zero idea how to
care for that animal.
My last two ferrets have been "fire sale" ferrets, large and ungainly
creatures who had been unsold, and who dwarfed their replacement
littermates. These ferrets had been marked down twice already, and in
one instance, returned outright to the pet store. Yes, I could have
made a point in not buying them, and by doing so, not giving money to
the ferret breeders that sell them.
Such a victory for the ferret care movement would have been considered
a bit pyrrhic to the creatures who would have been killed for that
statement, I think. I chose instead to buy Duncan and Zachary from a
pet store, where they were marked down, returned by unsuspecting
first-time ferret owners, and who were twice the size, and half the
socialization of their littermates. I took these guys into my home,
because no matter what I personally think of the Marshall Farm process,
these little guys were on their own. Had I stood on firm principle, two
of my ferrets would have never made it to a forever home at all. Would
have had a short life based on terror and abandonment, and never had
the thrill of a crochet egg or a snuggle sack.
I defy those who judge other ferret owners by their stewardship to
withstand the same scrutiny that they are so happy to bestow.
Watching the terrible events of Hurricane Katrina unfold on my computer
made my eyes open, even moreso than watching my own father's terrible
and impossible battle with transitional cell carcinoma. I saw that even
the "best" ferret/pet owner could be caught offguard, or simply unable
to completely relocate. We all live in the path of something. Planes
fall on houses, tornadoes rip through neighborhoods, fire can cut a
relentless blade through an apartment complex. None of us are totally
safe, no matter what surplus might lay in our bank account.
And considering these extreme circumstances, however disquieting that
might be, is imperative for any truly responsible ferret owner. Facing
these difficult moments is the real test of a pet owner, of any truly
responsible thinking human being. How many times has this very list
offered solutions for people looking for means to convince parents,
roommates, et al that ferrets are the best choice? How many times have
we needed to educate people who have no idea how to care for these
animals?
If the people who were most strident about the absence of pet store
ferrets were willing to see the pets currently in transition to be
euthanised, I would perhaps give them a little more respect.
In lieu of that, I will take in, as time and energy allows, the
occasional wayward ferret from pet store or shelter. I will put aside
what I can from my meager income to take care of the pets I hold dear.
And I will make arrangements for the most difficult of decisions under
the worst possible emotional and financial circumstances, because that
is what I have to do. And sadly, I will do so without the wealth of
knowledge I would otherwise gather from this site. Because I know I
dare not posit the truly difficult questions. Because I see how they
are treated.
And a part of my heart goes out to the pets who will suffer in every
single component of this scenario.
I do know this. My ferrets love me, and I love them. I would no more
deny them than I would myself. I totally understand the gravity that
this stewardship imposes, and I accept it. These ferrets, my pets and
my friends, do not want for food or water or clean bedding. They do not
want for attention or affection. And I certainly receive it from them,
in spades. I am enriched by them, as they are by me, and we have saved
one another many times over. And when the time comes for me to make
painful choices, I will do so -- not based on what is best for me, but
what is best for them. No matter what noghtmares I have to sufffer, or
what anguish I have to endure on their part. And if part of that is
having my ferrets pass over in the privacy and comfort of their own
home, of their own bedding, in the company of their friends and their
beloved Jonathan, then I stand free from the frail judgment of others.
You who would do so have no place in my heart, or in my mind. And For
that, I will adjourn from this list and find my own way.
My beloved Benjamin, my first ferret and best friend, is slowly dying
from old age and adrenal cancer. Rest assured his last few moments will
NOT be spent in a frantic drive to a sterile and foul smelling vet, for
the indignity of a needle or a gas mask with which he would struggle.
He will pass with at least the dignity and peace that my beloved
father passed, in his own bed, in no pain that I could not regulate,
surrounded by the familiar and the loved things that made his life
here wonderful. He will pass, if not in my arms, or in the familiar
warmth of his cagemates, in the soft luxury of his familiar bedding,
in the home he knew, in the world in which he sleeps tonight.
I shall not remain here for the ensuing judgment or recrimination.
Sincerely,
Jonathan
Benjamin, Dunan and Zachary Taylor-Thomas ferret
[Posted in FML 6337]
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