My club just had it's first minor victory in saving a ferret today, and
I just thought some of you might enjoy a happy story.
 
I was sewing "Cozy Ferret Bags"  (They're great!  You should ALL buy one! :-) )
on Saturday night, and I had just cut out new patterns from Friday's newspaper.
As I was cutting out the material I noticed a "found" ad:  Ferret, found
2/26, now at SPCA.  Since it was about 1 am I couldn't do anything about it
then.  So I ended up staying awake all night trying to think of some
reasonable stories to try and convince them that I was the owner, in case
they wouldn't turn the ferret over to us.  (We all know how the SPCA feels
about adopting ferrets out...  :-( )
 
The next morning I called Cindy, my Vice President, and "rescue person".
The SPCA wasn't open Sunday, so she had to wait until Monday to call.
So, bright and early Monday she's on the phone to the SPCA to see if they'll
adopt the ferret out (we figured we would try legitimate methods first).
She discovered that the ferret was due to be gassed at 10:00 A.M. Tuesday,
and that they don't release ferrets to anyone but the owner.  ("They are
a bite risk", and the whole rabies story.)  But Cindy told them who
she was, that she was a very knowledgeable ferret person, that she was
willing to take all responsibility if the ferret bit anyone, etc., etc.,
etc., and managed to convince the lady.  But, then the lady had to talk
to her boss.  So, they played phone tag for the rest of the day while
the lady tried to reach her boss.  With the deadline coming up so
quickly we were getting pretty worried.  If they had said "no" at that
point we wouldn't have even had time to play owner.  But, on Tuesday morning
they agreed to release the ferret to Cindy.
 
We were very lucky.  All it took was some quick talking to get the ferret
out of the SPCA.  But, it almost didn't work.  MORAL:  find out your
local shelter's views on ferrets now, before it becomes an issue.  If they
are militantly anti-ferret, you should get in touch with the AFA, FURO,
DEFFBAM, CDFA, or similar organizations to find out the best way to go
about changing their viewpoint.  And keep an eye on the classifieds, so you
don't end up with a last-second rescue attempt like we did.
 
And, if you ever need a convincing story to try and convince them you're
the owner let me know.  I thought up some good ones.  :-)
 
I haven't had a chance to talk to Cindy to find out what kind of condition
the ferret is in, yet.  I'll let you know.
 
Thanks for listening!
 
- Nancy
 
Nancy Hartman                                   CIS graduate student
[log in to unmask]                                U. of Delaware
        President and founder, Delaware Valley Ferret Club
                      Owner of Percy & Bree
 
[Posted in FML issue 0222]