Our sister organization ferret club, the Star City Ferret Club meets
monthly at one of our local public libraries.  We've done several
educational spots with the summer reading program and the after school
programs for the kids where we introduced them to our "good citizen"
ferrets.  During the most recent one, we had a young man about 8 years
old join us with his mom.  Mom has sever cat allergies and son has an
extreme fear of dogs and is also very critter wary.  At the story time
meeting I wanted to introduce the little man to the ferrets but he was
very standoffish.  He would watch them from a distance as they romped &
wrestled & played, smiling & laughing at their antics, but still wary of
them.  After about an hour of watching, he came up to me and tugged on my
shirt sleeve, asking if he could sit with one on his lap.  I obliged and
little man sat up on a chair and I set one of the ferrets on is lap, me
sitting on the floor next to them with tone in hand.  He sat there
petting the little furry critter for almost 20 minutes.  His mom was
almost in tears, tears of joy, saying she had never seen him do that.
He even commented to me that his mom was crying cause he had never petted
an animal before.  My eyes are welling up again as I remember the joy of
being able to share the love of ferrets with someone so fearful of any
animal.
 
Education is the key.  Getting proper, correct, accurate information out
there and exposure to them will let people see how special, and demanding
these animals are.  It was a good day!
 
Debbie Saunders
Shelter Director & Foster Mom
Big Lick Ferret Shelter & Hospice
Roanoke Virginia
 
www.biglickferretshelter.org
[Posted in FML issue 5321]