My husband and I run a ferret shelter out of our house.  We got into the
business rather accidentally, when we tried to start a ferret club and
people started dumping their ferrets on us!  I agree with Bob that the
shelter environment is not ideal for ferrets, and would prefer to find
homes for all of them within a few weeks.  We made a decision that we would
keep our adoption requirements simple and fairly non-intrusive.  In spite
of our simple requirements, some ferrets have ended up staying at the
shelter for a long time, mostly the larger groups that we didn't want to
separate.  However, we also had one jill that had a bad habit of eating
cloth and other nasty things like rubber bands.  She was a very sweet
ferret, but I think the cloth eating scared a lot of people off.
 
I would LOVE to get ideas for how to get ferrets placed more quickly.  We
have three pet stores that we do adoption/education days at, we're listed
in the phone book, on all the big ferret related websites (Ferret Central,
AFA),in the Ferrets USA annual (can't afford to advertise in Modern
Ferret), most of the vets in the area know about us, and still this isn't
enough!
 
And, of course, we get phone calls from people looking for breeders!  Then
there are the people in the club who are REALLY "collectors", to the point
where we told them they could not adopt any more ferrets from us.
 
At the risk of getting flamed for not screening people enough before they
adopt a ferret from us, our policy is simple: If you want to adopt and have
other animals, we will talk to your vet and make sure you take good care of
your existing animals.  If you don't have a vet, then we do a home
inspection.  And we always emphasize that we are available to answer
questions!  The shelter population seems to go in cycles, from a very few
ferrets in the shelter to lots.  Unfortunately, adoption is more erratic!
 
I am not trying to put down anyone else's methods of running a shelter,
just telling people what works for us.  Love to all the fuzzies out there.
 
Sara Petersen
FURRY (Ferrets Underfoot Running Round You)
 
http://members,igateway.net/~furry
[Posted in FML issue 2513]