Hi, all.  Just posted a few days ago about my distress at the general
crappiness of uneducated or just horrible ferret owners, and I'd first like
to thank everyone who replied to me... the replies were without exception
very nice, and I apologize to anyone to whom I couldn't reply personally --
my e-mail client lunched out yesterday, taking a lot of mail with it. =(
 
To the point, though.  I need a bit of advice about how to handle a
neglected ferret situation.  One of my wife's coworkers knows some people
who have a ferret which lives in a cage in their garage, winter or summer,
and "doesn't get played with much" (this coming from a non-ferret person...
in other words, it probably gets hauled out once a week or something).  I
know *nothing* else about the ferret... gender, vaccination status,
cage-craziness, age, nothing.  I want the ferret.  My wife has asked her
coworker to inquire as to whether or not the people who currently have the
ferret would be interested in parting with it, on the pretext that we're
looking for a playmate for Rorty, my solo fuzzbutt.  I could use advice
from anyone who's faced similar situations as to how to go about getting
the ferret checked out for god-knows-what, getting its age checked out,
dealing with possible blood-mean-scary-ferret-syndrome, and socializing it
with Rorty.  My first concern is getting the ferret out of what sounds like
a miserable situation.  My next concern, and the most important one from my
point of view, is bringing it into the household in such a way as to not
jeopardize the health or happiness of the fuzzbutt for whom I already take
responsibility... Rorty is my most important consideration.  I can't do
anything to impact him negatively.  Therefore, I regretfully have to think
about getting the rescue ferret to a shelter in the event that he/she and
Rorty don't mix.  This isn't something I can easily deal with one way or
the other, because I don't exactly have money, and I know I'll most likely
have to get the full battery of checkups and shots at the bare minimum.
But it's my gut feeling that even if things don't work out with keeping the
new ferret in our own home, the ferret is better off getting "sprung" and
into a shelter than staying in a cage in a garage, never being played with,
and being fed and cleaned on what I suspect is a less than regular basis.
I don't even want to think about what its toenails probably look like.
 
Anyway, this isn't going to be easy either way, I have the feeling.  I
don't even know if they'll part with the ferret (and the Humane Society
people here don't really give a rat's ass about ferrets).  And if they do,
I don't know if I can keep it peacefully and safely with Rorty.  I might
end up rescuing it only to have to take it to a shelter, which will
actually make *me* feel guilty.  Go figure.  But if you've ever had to do
something similar, I'd sure appreciate any advice you could give me.  Sorry
about the long post, and thank you for your time.
 
Otter Driver
[Posted in FML issue 2640]