>From:    Melissa Litwicki <[log in to unmask]>
>Subject: Food / Potpie
>Potpie's ears are crooked too.
 
Hard part about "judging" ferrets is those that hold their heads funny even
if they aren't lopsided.  One reason the AFA works hard at training their
judges for over a year is to let them get experience seeing things like
this.  But you know as well as anyone that all crooked ears mean is that
they aren't perfectly matched.  Doesn't mean much except for silly strips of
cloth.  Some of my favorite ferrets are far less show worthy then just
having crooked ears.
 
But I'd bet its "lake effect" rather than "gravity". <g>
 
>From:    Ferret Rescue of Tidewater <[log in to unmask]>
>Subject: feral ferrets;shelters;depo provera
>As far as the shelter situation, I can tell ya'll this: there are more
>ferrets out there this year than last year.
 
Some of that is from one of the three rescues I know of in your area closing
when the family moved to another part of the state.  This has been pretty
much the situation in all of Tidewater and Northern Virginia.  But at least
soon we'll have a "new" shelter opening in the upper Shenandoah Valley area.
 
>From:    Al Gearhart <[log in to unmask]>
>Subject: KAKA land, Vit A, shelters, bumper stickers...
 
Quoting us...
>>So this still boils down to the fact that we we have a distribution problem
>>with ferrets not a overpopulation problem.
 
>Fact!?!  So how do we solve this problem?  Part of the problem is that the
>fml makes up a small part of the ferret owning poplulation.  How many of
>the shelters on those listings are monitoring the fml?
 
There are some problems with no "permanent" solutions.  You've mentioned
that the FML is a small part of the population.  Most shelters are not on
the FML.  Some of the shelters belong to one of the national ferret
organizations/groups or one of the larger independent clubs such as the
Baltimore Ferret Club, Great Lakes Ferret Association and Greater Chicago
Ferret Association.  Others are stubbornly independant.  We've actually
"stumbled across" ferret shelters that nobody's heard of and they don't know
about any of the groups.  This independance trait of ferret folk is a well
noted phenomenon - partially why we are attracted to a less than mainstream
pet perhaps.  We recognize that mainstream isn't necessarily the same as
quality.
 
The shelters we consider the best in the country are not on this list very
much but are kept up to date mostly through us.  Some of them are just too
busy to consistantly read the FML.  These are the 100+ ferrets per year
shelters that spend any remaining time at the various shows helping
redistribute homeless ferrets.
 
For an organized ferret relocation to work though it will have to become
more a big picture than a small picture effort.  It will mean more of
shelters and halfway houses taking numbers of ferrets rather than
individuals specifically picking up ferrets from shelters on the other side
of the country.
 
We've got shelters here in Virginia taking in over a dozen ferrets in a week
which does not afford the luxury of individually placing them through the
net.  But we are more than willing to work on ways to help with this.  We
have to avoid the situations where the less adoptable ferrets are the ones
sent to other shelters while still trying to even the load.  We are willing
to "web host" a "database" for which shelters have surpluses and which have
shortages.  Hate the impersonality that this imparts but a big job is a big
job.
 
>From:    Jim Young <[log in to unmask]>
>Subject: Reply to Bob
 
A couple of minor points.  Both you and Bob do appear more fact oriented
than many who speak.  I consider myself an extreme environmentalist.  I can
point out examples of introduced species of plants and animals damaging the
local forests.  If I had any belief that ferrets would have a even slightly
noticible impact on the wilds of California I would not be a strong
proponent of legalization.
 
>The point of "Legalise it ?" was that you should be aware of all negative
>implications before allowing a species to be introduced into the urban or
>rural environment.
 
Since this is not an introduction but more of a desire to legalize the
actual situation it does impact your arguments.  Ferrets have been in
California for decades (I can not ascertain centuries though).  Ferrets were
legal and present but are now illegal and present.  They are not now nor
were they earlier a presence in the wild.
 
>I was interested to read that you had found a dead one 3 km from a town
>though.
 
Very probably abandoned by an owner who thought it would survive (or didn't
care).  Bob can you post the normal range of an individual polecat in the
wild?  See posting in the same digest from Lisa Leidig of Ferret Rescue of
Tidewater for more on that.  One specimen of unknown origin is hard to use
either way.  One side says "look a ferret in the wild" while the other says
"but it obviously didn't survive".  I'd tend to lean in this case strongly
to the "couldn't survive" but have a hard time seeing this as proof either
way.
 
bill and diane killian
zen and the art of ferrets
http://www.zenferret.com/
mailto:[log in to unmask]
[Posted in FML issue 1755]