Last Friday I visited a pet shop, a place that can best be described as The
Little Pet Shop of Horrors.  It is not the first time I've been there, and
it will not be the last.  This pet shop has been under investigation with
the Department of Animal Control many times, but they haven't had their
license yanked... not yet.  But if I had my way, their business would be
closed down forever.
 
Three sleeping ferrets were in a very dirty 75-gallon aquarium tank right
inside the front entrance of the store.  I eyed them with fierce
curiosity... they looked to be about five months old.  Were they friendly?
I reached in the tank and touched a fuzzy warm body.  All the ferrets were
instantly awake.  Not only awake, but wide awake and roaring to go.  Three
little mouths clenched their teeth on the cuff of my coat sleeve and would
not let go.  Slowly I lifted them out.  They were hanging on like little pit
bulls, even rabid ones!  ;)
 
The petstore manager caught sight of my dilemma.  "Won't they let go??" he
questioned with a knowing look on his face.
 
"What's wrong with these ferrets?" I asked him.  He explained that they
were the last three out of a dozen that were obtained as kits, and they had
spent most of their entire lives in the tank without being handled.  The
tank was barren except for an empty water bottle, pine shavings, and piles
of feces.  I managed to pry the little guys off me, one by one.  Then I
picked up one of them again, and examined her a bit more closely.  This
"neutered and descented" ferret looked to be in heat!  I hadn't seen a
ferret in heat for over 20 years and decided to bring this to the attention
of the manager.  But then I realized that her vulva wasn't what was swollen
to 15 times its normal size -- it was her rectum.  The poor thing had
obviously experienced repeated bouts of diarrhea, and apparently her
playmates had bitten her sore little butt until it bled and swelled.  I
think.
 
I longed to rescue the little girl.  I wanted to de-bite train her, and give
her a home, give her a name, toys and treats (for possibly the first time in
her life)... I wanted to take her to the vet.  How could this pet shop ever
sell these viciously biting ferrets anyway?  Weren't they worried about
liability or something?  The ferret I was holding had to have her mouth
pryed open to let go of my thumb, and I'm telling you, that little mouth had
tremendous biting power.  Still...
 
The ferrets had their prices reduced from $129 to $99, with an on-the-spot
price reduction (for me) to $79.  I wanted to tell the petshop owner that I
wouldn't take his ferrets even for free.  I wanted to tell him that I'd give
him a hundred bucks for all three ferrets.  But I left the store without
anything but a heavy heart.
 
I can't stop thinking about those ferrets.  But I don't have the time or
money to rescue, vet, and train all three of them (not at the same time,
anyway).  And no sooner would they be rescued, than twelve new baby kits
would take their place in the petshop's newly emptied aquarium tank.  I
could, however, rescue the sickest ferret.
 
-cadel
[Posted in FML issue 1814]