I saw an ad on craigslist for FERRATS in NOR CAL for FREE. I assumed
they meant ferrets because I believe a cross between ferrets and rats
is impossible......I always email these "for FREE" people and tell them
to be careful who they give their ferrets to because of snake owners
and dog fighters. Most people never respond....this time they did....
so I put on my lucky Buttwiggles Deva ferret See No Evil, Speak No Evil
and Hear No Evil socks and left for the NOR CAL border, hoping that
this time would be different.....nope.

My daughter and I met the "for FREE" people on the Oregon side of the
border. I was given the worse cage I've ever seen, a ziplock bag half
full of multi-colored, multi-shaped cheapo cat food, a water bottle
thoroughly coated on the inside with black slime, 2 filthy, smelly
fleece blankets, a ragged, dirty, boat-shaped hanging thing with foam
sticking out, A NEARLY EMPTY BAG OF TRAIL MIX (their "treats") and 2
female ferrets. I was also given a bottle of liquid vitamins and told
to put it in their water twice a month. There's no way those vitamins
could possibly help them overcome the lousy diet they had been eating.
I was told they occasionally got the WAL*MART ferret food..... as if
that was any better! They told me that the FERRATS refused to use kitty
litter (AWK!) and would only use sand (HUH?). I told the "for FREE"
people that I would take their carrier into our truck, close the door
and transfer the ferrets into our carrier BUT they took both ferrets
out of their carrier in the middle of a busy store parking lot and
handed them to my daughter and me. This has happened to me twice before
and always scares the heck out of me! The thought of loose ferrets in a
parking lot gives me nightmares!

After handing over the FERRATS, the woman turned to her daughter and
said "Okay, now let's go to the petshop to get you a hamster!". I know
for a fact that my daughter and I were just standing there with our
mouths gaping open as they drove away. We decided to run into the
store, pick up some snacks and head home. I hoped that while we were
in the store that someone would steal the cage out of the back of
the truck....no such luck. Once back in the truck we noticed an
overwhelming perfume odor...it was the FERRATS. The woman told me that
she bathed them twice a month because they "smelled bad". I think she
also doused them with PERFUME. By the time we got home a couple hours
later the perfume had given me a headache. I'll take a ferrety smell
over perfume any day!!

The strange thing is that I once had a lovely, sweet ferret named Ali
that came with a crazy ferret named Steve from the Oregon Ferret
Shelter. I added to her name and called her Sallee Ali Little Pearl.
The two illegal FERRATS are named Ali (albino) and Pearl (white with
a dusting of gray and deaf). Ali looks like a clone of the original
Ali....made me cry. Both are very sweet, but floppy with no muscle
tone, bloated and both are pooping out SEEDS from the trail mix.....
sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds, walnuts, etc. When my younger daughter
picked one up she yelled "OUCH, what's wrong with their nails?".....
they had NEVER been cut and were like horrible long NEEDLES. I have
seen long nails before but these were unreal. They had to be painful to
walk on! Needing someone to vent my anger to, I called Chris at the OR
Ferret Shelter. She's seen many, many more horror cases than me but
still patiently listened to my rantings...... then she told me about
her rescues during the past week....and I thought how every week is
like that for her and her husband Dave. I am and always will be in
total awe of you shelter moms and dads!

Nancy and her nineteen FERRATS,
welcoming sweethearts Ali and Pearl sleeping in their nice, safe
Quality Cage made here in Oregon!

[Posted in FML 6987]