To Dick Bossart:
 
You know, you would think because WNYFLFA has a shelter and we see stuff
like this all the time, that I would get used to hearing stories like this,
but your story, Dick, brought tears to my eyes this morning.
 
And the worse the stories are, the nicer the ferrets are - why is that?
 
We have several ferrets in our shelter now with sad stories - one woman
turned over 4 ferrets to us recently because one of them was sick - now, she
had taken it to the vet, but the vet told her nothing was wrong with it
(yeah, right), but when we got it, it was having such an allergic reaction
to something that it's eyes were swollen shut, her fur was in terrible
condition, and she had scabs all over from scratching herself raw.  Turns
out she was feeding them Kit and Kaboodle (I know I spelled it wrong!) -
yucky food.  After a skin soothing bath, several days of Benadryl and
Totally Ferret, she's like a new ferret.  We suspect she had a food allergy
to something in the K&K.  Her cagemates were so fat and lacked muscle tone
from never getting any exercise.  They've lost weight just in the short time
in our shelter.
 
It just breaks my heart to see how some people take care of - or DON"T take
care of - their ferrets.  And Kudos to all shelter people everywhere for the
work you do.
 
Special thanks to WNYFLFA Shelter Director, Laura Martino, who has done such
an outstanding job this past year, and to Pam Greene for developing the
Ferret FAQ - the bible of ferret owners everywhere.
 
Debbie Riccio
WNYFLFA
Rochester, NY
[Posted in FML issue 1557]