This is not meant to offend anyone.
 
Ferret Abandonment
 
Your off to the pet store, You want a ferret but you do not know much
about them, You get all you need and a book to help you learn.  Ferrets
for dummies, a very nice big cage, hammies, good food, water bottle, and
plenty of toys..  You love your fuzzy and nothing could ever seperate you
from Buckley.  Buckley goes everywhere with you, you two spend quality
time together playing, exchanging ferret kisses and hugs.  You promise
you will love and care for Buckley forever.
 
For the next 3 years you care, feed, play and give all you can to your
ferret.  You become best buds.
 
You meet someone, well that person doesn't really care for your ferret,
you think nothing of it.  You really start to like this person, you end
up moving in together.  Less and less time is spent with your precious
baby that you promised to care for and love til the end.  Your room mate
says look the ferret has to go, but thats your best friend....what do I
do, you think.....
 
Well you haven't really been giving your BEST BUD all the attention you
used to, you no longer have the time.....and your roommate doesn't really
like the ferret soooooo you decide it is better for your "BEST BUD" to go
to another home.
 
All of a sudden that promise you made no longer matters, its just a
ferret, he will find a good home,he will find someone to love him like
i once did..  most people love ferrets and would snatch him up in a
second.....
 
You pack Buckley up and off to the shelter you go.  Not even looking back
you leave Buckley there and go.
 
Well Buckley is loved and cared for by the great people at the shelter,
gets time out to play and plenty of attention....he doesn't want it, he
wants his "best bud", he wants his best bud to feed him, play with him
and care for him.  Buckley stops eating, stops playing, sleeps all the
time.  Nothing any of the shelter owners could do would convince him to
eat.Of coarse he cannot be adopted out in this condition..  Off to the
vet he goes, nothing wrong with Buckley, his health is great, no lumps
or bumps or colds or flu...nothing...except his broken heart no physical
exam can see.
 
Back at the shelter the loving careing people start feeding Buckley, he
fights them as much as he can, spitting out what they are trying so
desperately to get him to eat and still refuses to come out and play.
 
Slowly Buckleys health starts to deteriorate,hes loosing weight, its
becoming harder and harder for him to even get up, the shelter is at a
loss, they are and have tried everything they can possibly think of to
help Buckley, force feeding, getting him out one on one, love hugs lots
of kisses and special care.  Buckley just looks at them and closes his
eyes.
 
Two months after Buckley was abandoned he quietly passed to the bridge in
his sleep.
 
This story is fictional but written and based on true and auctual
happenings.  Not all ferrets that are abandoned go through, or suffer
from FAD or a broken heart.  But some do and unfortunately not all can
be saved or pulled through.  Ferrets are very intellegent creatures,
and they base their lives on what WE make of them.
 
If you "know" that you are not going to be able to care for or devote the
next 5 to 10 years of your lives to a ferret, I urge you NOT to choose a
ferret as a pet.  This of coarse does not pertain to illnesses and or
unexpected events in our lives that we have no control over, taking all
this into consideration though ferrets are not a cat or a dog and need
us 24-7 to care for their needs.
 
Speak to a shelter near you and ask questions, ask them about ferret
abandonment and the possible outcome .
[Posted in FML issue 5082]