I got the new issue of Modern Ferret in the mail today - what a neat
centerfold!  And a wonderful story about the cable laying ferret from
the turn of the last century, brought to light by Bob Church.  I predict
a run on used bookstores for a copy of the book this story is from.
 
As for GCFA's overcrowded shelter, filled with bald ferrets, I can only
speak from my personal experience with them when I was the president of
FURRY, a ferret rescue in St.  Louis.  We offered to help relieve their
overcrowding at one point (two or three years ago), because our shelter
was almost empty.  We drove up to Chicago (which is approx.  5 hours from
St.  Louis) and spent most of the day waiting around the shelter for
people to bring ferrets in, that would then be handed over to us.  My
memory of that day includes Norm saying that we couldn't take any of the
ferrets that were already in the shelter, because it would break the
volunteers' hearts.  At that point, and I don't know if it was for
financial or philosophical reasons, they were not doing surgeries on
adrenal ferrets.  They were treating with medication.  They were also not
doing adoptions anywhere besides the shelter.  Of course, this may have
changed in the interim, but it was never mentioned in their newsletter.
Petsmart in particular and some independent pet stores are usually eager
to work with shelters, especially if you have your 501(c)3 status.
 
I know that it's really hard to know whether someone will give a shelter
ferret a good home, especially if they've never owned ferrets before.
However, it's easy to make it too difficult to adopt, and most ferret
people I know have LOTS of ferrets already, making it difficult for them
to add to their family.  After all, of the 3000+ people on this list, how
many have fewer than three ferrets?
 
Running a shelter is very hard work, and I am certainly not trying to
slam anyone here.  But since the GCFA seems to have continuous problems
with overcrowding, maybe the board should realize that something is not
working and perhaps there's a different way of doing things that would
relieve that issue.
 
Sara & Taranis, Zeus, Spice Girl and Orlando
[Posted in FML issue 3883]