Just thought you'd like to hear a neat story.  Last week my son was wearing
a ferret t-shirt I bought for him up at 4 paws shelter in Pennsylvania while
I was up there.  Anyway, he was at the mall and bumped into an old friend
from high school, and upon seeing his shirt, she said "hey my little brother
has two ferrets, but they're not doing so well.  He hasn't been taking such
good care of them, and they started to stink a lot and my dad said "I'm
tired of this house stinking, get them out of the house!" So, little brother
moved two ferrets, cage and all, into their back yard.  The temperature for
the past month here in Texas has hovered between 95 and 100 degrees with
humidity in the 70% range, netting a heat index of well over 115 degrees!
Chris said,"you've gotta get them out of the heat or they'll die!  How long
have they been out in it?" "About a month, she said." "Let my parents (us)
come get them or they'll die very soon, he said." "Well, they are starting
to look pretty bad, she said." So...we contacted the parents and told them
to let us get them out of the heat at least, but the little boy didn't want
to let them go, 'cause he wanted to sell them.  He thought he could get
$200.00 for them, but one, a little girl, age 2 or 3 had never had ANY
shots, and the boy, aged 3 had had 2 distemper and 1 rabies in 1995!  We
explained he'd never get that kind of money for ferrets needing their full
series of shots all over again, and whatever he wanted to do, just let us
get them into our house until he could decide.  The mother and the friend of
Chris's wanted to give them away to a good home, and we said ours certainly
was, but that we'd at least get them into the air conditioning while he
decided, and he finally relented.  Well, we picked them up last Sunday PM;
so dirty you can't believe, but after 1 week, NO, NO,NO odor at all, the
sweetest, gentlest ferrets I've ever seen who love to play kissie face all
day.  We have them now as boarders (read I now have control over their
ultimate welfare!), they are learning to eat properly, to use the litter
box, and think they've died and gone to the Rainbow Bridge.  Today we
started them on their shot series, my vet agreed to work with us since
they're rescues, and we hope the son will soon realize he no longer really
wants to care for them properly, and should just let us either keep them or
place them in loving homes.  We've never had the chance to rescue really
desperate fuzzies, but feel honored to have been chosen by them as foster
parents, at least for a little while.  If it had not been for that ferret
t-shirt I'd given my college aged son, his friend would have never known he
not only loved ferrets but owned them as well, and these two little guys
might be dead by now.  The heat is relentless, we were lucky to find out
about them, and now, all you guys with ferret clothing....go put it on and
advertise.  You might make a difference to one ferret!  :-)
 
Tuck Kemper
Proudly owned by Major Burns (ferret face), and Scooter (the Dook of
Earl)  Now sharing my home with Baby (that's his name, even if he DOES
weigh almost 5 lbs.), and Anja.
[Posted in FML issue 2027]