Hi
After reading about shelters and what some people think of shelters I just
wanted to say something.  Allot of people that talk bad about shelters
have not been to visit enough shelters to know not all run the same.  For
example our shelter We have ferret sitting free of charge if the person at
the time had an emergency come up and didn't allow for the extra money.
We have paid for vaccines for ferrets that no this person doesn't need a
ferret they can't afford one thing for him but they got him at a petstore
and he hasn't had any shots so we paid for them.All of the ferrets in our
shelter get playtime everyday and have martins cages and have 5 different
types of food for which ever mood their in to eat that day.  They have all
had their shots within 2 days of coming to the shelter.  They ALL have
hammocks and tunnels and sleep sacks ( Margaret Lehman)in each and every
cage.  We have one bedroom Just for the ferrets that they do share with the
computer desk but they still take that over too.  The one thing I want to
say is ALL the ferrets in this house get allot of love and care we get on
the floor and play with them and they have tubes and cat house and a big
bed to play in when they are out.  We go to the other side of Statesville
just to get pine fresh litter for them.  So for someone to even comment on
the ferrets are not treated fairly in shelters is wrong.  Yes it's hard
when we were up to 36 and we were up till 3 am for playtime and cleaning
cages then up at 5:30 to go to work but I Choose to be a shelter and it
does mean to make sacrifices.  I know others who have shelters and they
know of little sleep also.  I have gotten several ferrets turned in because
someone was gonna try to be a shelter.  And then after getting 11 decided
it was too hard so I got them.  When I got them they were all in a midwest
cage.  which is WAY too small.  now she wasn't really a shelter she was
trying to be.  and she had all of them in one cage they had no room to
move.  now they have one of skip's cages and it's the biggest one he makes.
So I think all the bad comments of shelters need to stop until you have
walked in our shoes then you don't have the right to talk about what we are
doing wrong.  Anyone who has been to our shelter knows how well they are
taken care of.  We also have a form they have to fill out and sign and they
have to bring the ferret back to us for any reason they no longer want the
ferret.  This stops the taking them to another shelter problem.  We hope to
have pics soon up on our web page of our shelter so everyone can see.  Yes
there may be some that don't really care but for the most of them they
really do care.  We have had several come in and we were told they weren't
eating and didn't think they would make it another night and they ended up
doing wonderful eating and gaining weight and turning out to be very
healthy ferrets.  And until you have stayed up all night and hand fed and
make endless trips to the vets during the night and have been a mommy to
all them you have no idea what I'm talking about but our shelter ferrets
are treated like gold just as our very own are because to us they are ours
until they are adopted out and even then partly still ours.  Anytime anyone
wants to see our shelter come on by.  Our vets number is on our web page
for anyone who wants to call and ask them how well they are taken care of
they told the newspaper that was writting a piece on us that the ferrets
are spoiled.  And for the ones writting about how bad shelters are Try it
and see if you can do it it's easy to type and complain about something but
try to do the work.  We have been doing this for 4 years going on 5 we know
what work needs to be done and the extra work that we want done.
 
Western North Carolina Ferret Shelter,Rescue & Club
Judy & Gary Skinner
3219 Oran Yount Ln
Granite Falls, NC 28630
828-396-8117
http://www.ferrethut.com/index.html
[log in to unmask]
http://www.iGive.com/html/ssi.cfm?cid=html
[Posted in FML issue 2858]