Hello All,
 
Today I am not going to post my usual light or humorous post, today I am
being very serious.
 
Of late, there seems to be quite a few postings relating to one or more of
our beloved furry friends escaping into the outdoors.  For someone who has
never had this happen to them, it is hard to imagine the degree of pain,
guilt, and fear one experiences.  It is also easy to fall into the "that
would never happen to me because I am so careful" frame of mind.
 
I once had a very EXPERIENCED ferret person relate to me her story of a
ferret escape.  This lady's basement is set up for the ferrets and is home
to many of her shelter ferrets.  Since the area was "ferret proofed", there
was much concern when one of the shelter babies could not be located.  At
first, it was believed that she had simply found an out of the way place to
sleep.  After searching all the usual and the not so usual spots, it was
determined that somehow the ferret had gotten out.  The shelter owner began
to check the basement and discovered that there was an opening to the
outside from the area where the dryer hose was located.  As the opening was
located quite high from the floor, the ferret would have had to have climbed
the dryer hose and squeezed herself between the hose and the wall.  Luckily,
the ferret was located a short while later, but not in time to cause the
shelter owner a great deal of anguish.
 
We got our first ferret in 1985.  We knew absolutely nothing about how to
care for these little guys much less about ferret proofing.  After a couple
of years of ferret ownership, Scott left the window open in his office.  Our
ferrets had free roam of the house at this point and when I came home from
work and prepared to feed the "kids", discovered Rascal was missing.  I
searched the house and finally noticed a small hole in the screen in Scott's
office.  Rascal had gotten outside.  We live in a highly wooded area and the
closest neighbor is over 3 city blocks away.  We searched everywhere,
alerted the neighbors, spent nights outside just in case he came back during
the night time hours, called for him, used the squeeky toy that we train our
ferrets to come to, and still he was not located.
 
The following year, while Scott and I were on vacation, another of our
ferrets escaped from the ferret sitter's care.  Again, we searched and did
all we could do to locate Button.  She was never found.
 
I feel that dealing with an escapee who is not located is more
psychologically draining on a person than losing that little one to death.
With the death of a beloved pet or human, one experiences the feeling of
finality.  One can begin to deal with the pain because one is aware that
death has occurred.  With an escapee or a runaway, that feeling of finality
is not there.  There is always the feeling of hope that he/she might return
and be there just waiting outside for his owner to come and open the door
for him so he can come back in.  One also wonders where he is and if someone
found him, "is he being cared for".  It has been over 12 years now since
Rascal escaped and I still wonder where he is.  Does the pain go away?--No,
because it is not finalized.
 
Margaret, Scott and the 16 (let's count noses) wonder weezils
Exclusively Ferrets
[Posted in FML issue 2205]