There are several strong reasons that I REALLY, REALLY am glad that the
FML tries hard to education newbies to the needs of ferrets and that
there no longer is that horrid inclination to act like ferret math is
always something funny to be encouraged.
One of these been discussed just this week When circumstances change
without enough savings being present or when people do not take the
medical needs that are INEVITABLE into consideration then the ones who
suffer must are the ferrets and sometimes also whomever winds up with
the ferrets afterward (often hard working, strictly economizing shelter
parents who do without to care for ferrets who need their help).
It iS better that the ferrets go somewhere where care can be provided
when nothing can be worked up. All too often, though, if the people
with the ferrets made the same sorts of sacrifices as shelter parents do
(though often at a lower level) the ferrets would be able to stay home.
MANY PEOLE HAVE WORKED OUT SOLUTIONS. Some pay on time. Some use credit
cards and pay those on time. Some provide labor: creating hospital
websites, scrubbing hospital floors, cleaning cages, doing bookwork, etc.
Some find out if the vet might be willing to trade part of the cost for
something useful: a spare cot for the hospital which can be stored
away, file cabinets, whatever... Some sell their collections or other
belongings in yard sales or on ebay. Some seek alternative vets by
asking at their region's clubs and shelters and by looking at vet
lists using such resources as the critical refs at
http://www.ferretcongress.org and the lists at
http://www.supportourshelters.org .
Excellent points have been made, and these are important things for all
to consider. We all know that circumstances can change for the worse,
and many of us (including Steve and I, our family, and part of our
extended families) have been in exactly that spot in these last few
years. Still, while life can take a dump on someone (and always does at
various points in life) often enough people create their own problems by
taking on more than they can cope with, by being unwilling to budget, by
being unwilling to sacrifice, by being unwilling to save.
Given that life is always going to plop something hard to deal with on
any of us it simply makes sense to be careful to try to create one's own
safety cushion. It's just such financial safety cushions which are
covering our ferrets' needs right now as well as some of our own. We all
have rainy days and we know that we all will have rainy days if we aren't
having them now, so instead of getting 8 ferrets get two or three and put
the money you would have spent on additional ferrets, their food, litter,
etc. into savings for the care of the two. That pair or triplet will
not love you less for it, and may love you more, and certainly you will
provide better love for them if you can care for them properly, no matter
who you are. You'll love yourself more, too, because you won't have a
guilt load driving you to exhaustion.
There IS no easy way to say these things. No matter how they are said or
how non-specific the points are there will always be someone who takes
offense when the topics under discussion include some combination of
things like money, hard choices involving deprivation, or politics, or
religion. There can be people who agree on 99% of the things in life
yet figure that 1% difference in choices is too emotionally powerful to
overlook. So, even though I direct this post to no one individual and
even though I offer some possible solutions and take into account that
sometimes what life throws at us does exceed our safety cushions even
when we have been careful I am sure that someone will take offense.
The only solution for some is for the FML to continue providing the
important service of warning newbies that no one who is new to ferrets
should have many and that they should save right from scratch. That
warning PREVENTS these sort of problems, it reduces the chances of animal
abuse, it helps people have the degree of interaction needed to learn
much about what their ferrets are saying through body language, behavior,
and more, and it helps spot health problems early allowing to care, etc.
[Posted in FML issue 4451]
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