What Shelters Go Through
 
Please allow me a space to vent my frustration.  Those of you operate ferret
shelters already know the feelings through your own experiences.  Those of
you who don't should be aware of what is happening to ferrets out there;
through ignorance, neglect and even abuse.
 
Last week we received a phone call from someone who wanted to drop off their
ferret at our shelter.  She was described as being a female albino, about 8
years old, possibly suffering from a "stroke" because she couldn't walk on
one of her rear legs.  The owner was moving out of state and could not take
her to their new home.
 
"Baby" was brought in last weekend.  Her skin was pale, fur dull.  She
limped very badly, with her rear leg almost sticking out at a 45 degree
angle.  She had neither distemper nor rabies vaccinations; had been fed a
cheap, grocery store cat food all of her life.
 
When we examined her leg, we could feel an obvious malformation and swelling
the entire length of her leg.  The owner said that she had been that way for
about a year.  Baby also had an extremely swollen vulva, which, again
according to the owner, had been going on for "about a year or so".  She was
also blind in one eye.  All of this and never a visit to a vet (of course
state laws until recently prevented a vet from helping her.)
 
We immediately put Baby on Duck Soup and extra vitamins until we could get
her into the vet's (Dr. Dutton) on Monday.
 
On Monday, Joan gathered up our crew to put away while she was gone.  Our
big albino male was MIA, but she went ahead and prepared for the trip to the
vet's.  She got the carrier out of the garage, sat it on the floor, got Baby
out of her cage and put her in the carrier.  Halfway to the vet's she
glanced over to see two pink noses and two white ferrets looking out.  Now
Bear is a good sized male, who will tolerate his "gang" but dislikes new
comers intensely Baby is an 8 year old who has never seen another ferret.
Yet here they were in the same carrier without a fuss.  In another minute,
Bear curled up around Baby as if to comfort her and reassure her.  Read on
and tell me who do you think showed the greatest "humanity" toward Baby,
Bear or the former owner.
 
Dr. Dutton X-rayed Baby's leg and found that the bone had been splintered
and pulverized; then sort of grew but never knitted She had been in constant
and severe pain ever since the original break over a year ago, and now a
tumor was forming in the leg.  There was no way of saving the leg,
especially considering the tumor.  We had the choice of euthanizing her or
amputating the leg.  We chose the latter.  Fortunately, Baby came through
the operation fine, and is recuperating for her trip home this Thursday.
The adrenal surgery will have to wait until she completely recovers from the
amputation.  Vaccinations are way down on the list.  Already we have a
volunteer to foster her.
 
Yesterday, we received a 4 month old kit.  He was sold by a pet store to a
family as an "ideal pet for a young child".  They were told to feed him mink
food, with an occasional bit of cat food.  They were also told that they
were "cage animals", so for his entire life he was in a small cage, except
after he learned to open his cage door and escape into the house.
 
Fortunately the family began to realize that this was not the animal they
were told it was, and decided to turn him over to our shelter.  For four
hours after being left to run here, I could not go near him without his
running away - probably in fear of being caged again.  Finally, after the
four hours, he felt secure enough that he was willing to be picked up, fed
his first taste of ferretone and love.  Shelters experience these happenings
regularly.  It is often heart wrenching, frustrating and anger provoking,
not to mention a real drain on personal finances.  Please support your local
shelters, if not with monetary support, then with moral support.  It helps
us get through times like these.
 
          Dick B.
[Posted in FML issue 1556]