I thought long and hard about this post and had actually decided not
to send it in until I spent the majority of my day at our shelter vet
taking turns with the vet techs picking deer ticks off of a sweet
little girl Diane got a call about yesterday (she was abandoned outside
and walked into someones house while they were carrying in groceries) .
She probably had more than 200 ticks on her-it was the worst
infestation the vet had seen in her over 20 years of practicing. The
only thing that probably saved her life is that she is so young.

I would happily be put on a waiting list to obtain a personal ferret
from a private breeder if it meant that I never again had to assist in
taking pictures for an animal control case of a dead emaciated ferret
who literally starved to death because it didn't occur to his owner to
take him to the vet when he stopped eating--or if I never had to rush a
ferret to the vet with a leg wound that was literally rotting away (the
owner on the phone had assured Diane that he just had a "pea sized
bump"-same owner chased me down the driveway as I rushed the ferret
to the vet to get his carrier back) the leg was later amputated. If I
never again had to 24 hour nurse back to health a ferret that was on
death's door because he had a bug for over 2 weeks-and he was never
brought to the vet. We weren't even sure he was going to live through
the first week and it took me about a month before he even acted like
a "real boy" again.

I would wait as long as I had to for my next ferret if I never again
had to spend most of my day at the vet with a ferret who had suffered
an injury that had torn both rear ACL's and then was abandoned with his
sister in an apartment. If I never again had to teach a ferret to trust
again because the hands that should have only touched them with love,
had betrayed them, or if I never had to watch another ferret literally
will himself to death (it took him 7 months) no matter WHAT I DID
because his mother broke his heart and just never came back to get him.

These are just a few of the stories, from one small shelter. I truly
believe if more people had to put more thought and more money into
obtaining a ferret--some of these stories would still exist, but there
would be fewer of them. Human nature seems to hold less value in that
which is easily obtained--and it's hard to make an "impulse buy" when
you are put on a waiting list.

Having an animal in your life is not a right, it's a privilege.

Michele Paulhus
Asst Director, South Shore Ferret Care, MA

-- 
"All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do
nothing." ~Edmund Burke~

[Posted in FML 6811]