Kat wrote:
 
>I should have prevented this.  It shouldn't have happened.  They are in my
>care and I failed them.  Oh, I know it was a careless young child who left
>the door open, and no one had any idea it was open, and it was the dead of
>winter and why would anyone even open a door in the first place?  But
>they're gone and I feel sad and guilty, and like I don't ever deserve to
>have another ferret ever again.
 
I wish I had some magic words that would make the guilt go away, but I
don't.  It's been almost 2 years since I lost my first guy, Arlo, after
owning ferrets for about the same amount of time, and I still feel guilty
occasionally.  It was probably some careless friends that permitted his
escape, but the responsibility ultimately lies with the owner, and there's
no getting around it.  Like you, I questioned my competence as a ferret
owner.  Unlike you, I stopped posting the ferret boards for a while because
I didn't feel it was my place to comment.  You're handling things better
than I did.
 
One encouragement I can offer is Mike (yeah I know, dumb name), who came to
me as a roundabout result of losing Arlo.  Mike matched Arlo's description
closely enough that a local shelter called a "lost & found" registry, which
called me, and I drove up to take a look.  Wasn't Arlo, but I ended up with
Mike, who was and is a gentle, healthy, well-behaved ferret.  He was
probably one year old at the time, and *must* have escaped from someone who
took good care of him.  For a month I forced myself to view him as a guest,
because I didn't want to get attached, and for three more months I worried
about a call from the registry, because I didn't want to give him up.  Now
he's mine.
 
Some lost ferrets just trade owners.
 
swamp
 
"Who, me officer?  What's a ferut?  These guys??  No, they're Polish cats."
[Posted in FML issue 2211]