I take turns handling calls on our hotline for the shelter I volunteer for.
The last two days have been very hectic, making me chomp at the bit to
hand the torch onto my relief person.  When the day is all said and done,
and I get a moment to myself, I do feel though that I am part of something
wonderful, and look forward to dealing with the challenges offered up the
next day.
 
Today was a sad day.
 
For about a week, one of my callers has been keeping in touch with me about
the progress of her ferret, who one month ago, had abdominal surgery.  The
first time she called me, it turned out that her ferret was breathing
rather shallow and didn't know what to do.  It was close to midnight so
the only thing I could tell her to do, was to go to an emergency clinic.
She went and the vet there put him on a low level antibiotic.  The next
day she took him back to her regular vet and he seemed to be doing better.
 
This morning I got a call that her ferret seemed to have taken a turn for
the worst once again, and she needed to get him to the vet but no one had
the time to take her.  The taxi company she called told her that he would
have to track down a driver who would take a ferret as some drivers were
afraid of them.  Her friends had other plans.  When I heard her plight I
left for her house immediately.
 
We got him to the vet and I was onto my next emergency.  She called me by
noon to tell me that he didn't make it.
 
Whether you work for a shelter, or actually in one, the outcomes are not
always happy ones.  People need support from those who understand what
living with these wonderful fuzzbutts are all about.  When she told me he
had to be euthanized, I cried with her... he was a beautiful little boy,
and barely four years old.  She didn't even get the chance to say goodbye,
that's how fast he was slipping away.
 
She is the type of person who would go the extra mile in order to see
that her ferret got the medical help he needed... she told me she would
get a second job if she had to in order to save his life.  She is now
understandably devastated.  I will call her tomorrow and see how she is
doing.  In the meantime, she told me she wants to donate some of his things
so that they can be used for those who need it.  It was a very generous
gift.  They will go to my shelter's needy foster kids, or the ones who will
be coming in soon.  Even in her time of grieving she offered her help to
me... if there was anything she could do for me in the future... just call.
She said that she didn't offer it as a repayment for my help to her but she
said that she is a big believer in "what comes around, goes around."  What
a great thing to say.  Something we can all live by.
 
There are many things we can do to help... if you can't work at a shelter,
offer support in other ways: Read up on all the new medical advances made
in ferret medicine and call others to let them know about it, or share them
with your vets; offer support by giving lifts to those who are without
transportation; be there for those who have recently suffered a loss; sew
hammocks and blankets for shelters and donate them anytime... not just for
Christmas; volunteer for a ferret society in your neighbourhood; support
internet programs like iGive.com; and share the information you learn in
this digest with others who do not have access to the internet.  Whatever
it is that you can come up with to do... do it, and just get involved...
however you can.
 
Rewards do not always come in the form of saving a life... they come in
tears, and in sharing grief.  The reward comes in the form of being
there.... even in just support.  For God knows... we could all use it.
 
Today's sad event has shown me that, for those of us who volunteer, we must
take the good with the bad... Not only has it reinforced the idea that
shelters require all the help they can get, but it has strengthened my own
dedication overall.
 
Betty and Her Blur O'Fur
For the love of ferrets.....
[Posted in FML issue 3068]