The remaining ferrets are fast asleep, the room has been cleaned up, and
all is quiet.  I stand in the middle of the room and feel so empty.  Where
there were 20 or more ferrets there are only eight.  The close of the day
always seems so sad now...
 
I have been forced to liquidate many shelter assets, and the ferrets
certainly were one of those assets.  Due to illness, unpaid bills, etc., it
has been a very sad year for me.
 
If that was not hard enough, the harsh realities you read about on the FML
make you more upset each passing day.
 
As a ferret lover/owner/caregiver, you meet with such outrageous opposition
every day of your life.  Someone will refer to them as rats, rodents, and
even weasels.  Well, although they do share a branch of the weasel family
tree, they are FERRETS.  David Letterman should have chosen a WEASEL.
(Not that it would have been any more humane...) To refer to that joke as
a "small incident" is not accurate.  If it had been a child, it would have
been wrong.  Why, because it is a ferret, was it a small incident?  And who
owns that poor ferret?  (They should be turned over to a shelter).
 
My shelter has been blessed with many wonderful ferrets, who were abandoned,
abused, mishandled, etc.  If we could come up with a magic spell to cast on
people so they could become a ferret and live life as a ferret, there would
be no more cruelty, verbal or otherwise.  The point is they don't care
because they don't feel, and they project their own personalities quirks
onto the ferrets.  They think the ferrets can't feel, either.  Leaving
ferrets out in the rain?  Oh, please, if we are truly human, a highly
intelligent and rapidly advancing species, then why are we still doing such
things?  (Just think, if there are aliens out there, what the heck are they
thinking about us?????)
 
It has been a very hard and trying business for me.  The cleanliness issue
is always an issue in our place.  I pride myself on the cleanliness and
organization of my shelter.  It has been referred to by past boarders as a
"ferret Disneyland".  Comments like that make it worth it.  But someone
makes a comment to me about a recently deceased member of my shelter.  Upon
informing them of the untimely death of the little guy, the remark, "if it
were up to me, ALL ferrets would be dead."
 
If it were up to me, all people who made comments like that would be, too.
I appreciate all the help I have gotten over the past year.  I hope to
someday resume what I do for the ferrets.  However, if someone called and
said they needed a home for a ferret, I would never say no.  Once you've
had one, you can't say no.
 
Ferrets certainly do have feelings, and so do we.  I am so filled with
sorrow, sadness, guilt, hurt, etc.  It is not easy to do what I do here.  I
cry tears for ferrets that I do not even know, that I have never met.  I
cry for the ones I have never even heart about yet.  I cry for the ones
that have passed on.  I cry for the ones that I have lost.  I miss them
all, dead OR alive.  I want to keep them all, but I can't.  And I am
beginning to hate the world for being so damned unfair to such a wonderful
creature.
 
AND IT IS NOT WILD.
 
There is such a thing as EDUCATION, and if you are fortunate enough to get
one, you not only make a very good ferret owner, you would know the history
of ferrets and know that it is not wild.
 
Encouragement would be nice here, guys.
 
I currently house eight permanent residents, and one boarder, the infamous
Lucy.  I have a home waiting for her, when the time is right.
 
Everyone who has a ferret, you are truly a saint, and your ferrets are
truly angels.  Keep up the good work.
 
And to my beloved Rocky, my little man, I love you and I am sorry.  I hope
that you will find Boober at the Rainbow Bridge.  He will take good care of
you, as I apparently could not.  I love you, and I have learned from you.
You are now truly an Angel Ferret.
 
Donna L. Carlsen
Angel Ferret Shelter, Inc.
"Fun Stuff For Your Ferret"
1448 Daybreak Road
Las Vegas, NV 89108
(702) 648-4962
[Posted in FML issue 2459]