Recently I visited my local ferret rescue shelter to hopefully find baby
number 3.  There were other visitors at the shelter that day, and Rick and
Dee the owners were busy.  Being a fairly regular visitor I tried to keep
out of the way whilst they talked to their other visitors.  When Rick
handed me this little girl ferret (Medusa, because she used to bite like
she had 10 heads) I was very wary.  I remember seeing her when she first
arrived at the shelter, she was in need of some rehab, no doubt.  But now,
6 months later this girl was sooooooo different, she and I bonded straight
away and she snuggled in.  Hence I brought her home delighted and she
settled in as if she had been here all her life.  I phoned the shelter that
night to say how pleased I was with her and how she had never offered to
bite or nip and how she and Becci (my other little girl) had greeted each
other like long lost friends when I introduced them.  (I had phoned earlier
in the week but had to leave a message on their answering machine.)  The
response I got from them was a shock!  Apparently I did NOT take Medusa
home!!!!!!  Rick and Dee have another ferret jill who is VERY similar in
looks to Medusa, and she was in the same pen.THIS little girl was a special
favourite of theirs, and NOT for adoption at all.  She was from their own
breedlines, born last Summer.  They owned the father and a friend owned the
jill.  They had had her since she was a kit of 8 weeks.  Because they had
been busy, Rick had handed her to me by mistake,thinking at first glance
that she was Medusa!  The reason why she was so friendly with Becci when I
got her home, was that when she was tiny, she had been sharing a pen with
Becci who had mothered her until I had adopted Becci.  I was devastated
because I felt that I should take her back to them.  I kept worrying in
case they thought I had switched them or something.  But no, after I had
phoned on the first evening I got her home, they had later gone out to
feed and check on their ferrets and realised the error.  Because I was so
thrilled with her when I rang, and she was obviously happy, they had
decided that I could keep her.  They had discussed it when they first
realised I had the wrong one.  I cannot thank them enough!  I would have
taken her back because I can understand how they must have felt, but if I
took her back now it would break my heart.  Don't you agree that they are
simply the best?
 
Please visit our very first web page.
http://www.sirion.karoo.net/family.htm
[Posted in FML issue 3034]