>Why would you obtain seven, if you were unsure that you could afford them?
>This is silly.  I would not go out and have lots of children without
>considering the financial constraints.  Welfare is a whole other issue,
>but I will not go there for fear of being flamed.  I think it is very
>trashy and irresponsible of people to take other "living beings" into
>their lives without the above considerations.  SHAME ON YOU FOR BEING SO
>SELFISH!
 
I've been reading this thread and trying very hard to shut up.  It's gotten
to the point that I'm almost ready to be taken off this mailing list.  It
has nothing to do with any one individual it is the constant state of
everyone, hmmmm, bickering, at each other.
 
Seven of my ferrets came to me because of people knowing "my love for
ferrets" (maybe due to the bumper sticker????:) and the fact "they couldn't
keep them anymore".  I do not have money.  I live paycheck to paycheck.
Total in all, I have 10 ferrets.  9 live in the "ferret room".  The ferret
room is comprised of a 3 story cage with 6 hammocks, pcv pipe that you can
put in all kinds of different shapes for ferrets to run through, a child's
sliding board, a child's dump truck that can sleep two ferrets in the back,
a clear dryer hose, lots and lots of blankies, a couple of child proof pill
containers with bells inside, balls, lots of food and lots of water.  The
cage is NEVER closed unless I have to put the fuzzies in there to vacuum.
They have free run.
 
One ferret came to me with a coller so tight around her neck that it was
becoming a permanent fixture.  Her and her sister had fleas so bad that
once in the tub the fleas were climbing into their eyes to get away from
the water.  The latest addition, Bandit, is a 6 year old dude that is the
sweetest, most loveable thing in the world.  He was *never* allowed out of
his cage.
 
Point of this?  Selfish?  Trashy?  (This is not a flame).  It is not
directed at the writer of the above quote.  It is the entire thread that is
going on here that I'm responding to.  Are the ferrets in my care better
off in my ferret room, or where they *may* have gone if I had not taken
them???????  The owner of Bandit had him for 6 years and couldn't keep him
anymore.....
 
It appears to me that there's alot of chiefs on this list and very little
indians.  Technically, I cannot afford my ferrets and this "lifetime
committment".  Ferret math?  Is this what one would call it?  My "whim" to
"have more ferrets that I cannot afford?" In my personal opinion, my WHIM
is the result of an animal needing a home and my having the ability to give
them a decent one as opposed to going to a pound, being let loose to run
the streets resulting in DEATH, or whatever other horrors could happen.  Am
I a shelter?  NO.  And I do not claim to be one.
 
As this thread has been happening, it has been stated that the shelters
(God Bless Them), are by far overcrowded.  I'd have to ask.  If
"technically" I cannot afford to "take on any more animals" is the answer
to this to tell people "oh well, too bad, I can't help you"?  I'd invite
ANYONE over to my house to visit with my ferrets and play with them in
their room.  And ANYONE that would come could see the poor neglected
creatures as they wardance around and run to me to put them on the slide so
they can go down.  Or "mom, throw me in the box of peanuts,
pleeeeeezzzeeee?" I also have ferrets come over to stay while their owners
go on vacation.  I've been told by many they would trust their ferrets with
no one else.
 
There is ALWAYS different sides to every point or opinion.  It behooves me
to read the flames that people are so eager to throw.  Because it appears
that EVERYONE knows everything and everyone is always right.
 
So, on an ending note, I would have to say that my irresponsibility of
obtaining these ferrets to live a peaceful happy, playful life as opposed
to, as I say again, whatever horrors would have happened to them if I had
not, will just have to be one more lesson to be learned.  BTW, the
residents that were given to me that have been here the longest has been 4
years now.  If someone has ferrets that they realize they have to give up,
then it happens.  If someone did not take the financial responsibility in
mind, then it happens.  If someone REALIZES this, then it happens.  Life
happens.  The bottom line is that it happens.  Period.
 
Karen and the 10 fools who don't realize that their mommy can't afford
them.
[Posted in FML issue 2775]