This, I believe, is an unanswerable question.
 
I went into the petstore today to get some food for my critters.  So
NATURALLY I went over to check on the ferrets.
 
What I found was dreadfully familiar from posts others have left about
pet-store nightmares.
 
There was a single male MF ferret in a cage that was barely big enough for
him to stand in.  There was no hammie for him to sleep in.  The cage was
disgusting..  there was piles of fecal material flowing over the sides of
the cage, as well as piles in all four corners.  When I got there, he was
sound asleep... in the litterbox on top of fresh poop.  His nails were as
long as my pinky finger from the knuckle closest to the fingertip to the tip
itself.  The water bottle was bone dry.
 
I took the water bottle up to the counter where a teenage girl was working
and asked her if I could get the ferret some water.  She was a little
irritated that I would presume to do something like this, and she said that
she hadn't ""Gotten around to it yet." She took the bottle from me and set
it on the counter..  and went back to talking to her girlfriend on the
phone.
 
I went back to play with the fuzzie.  He literally was bouncing around the
cage with glee because someone was paying attention to him.  I swear he was
going to hurt himself if he kept it up... the cage was moving around on the
shelf from the force of his little body hitting the cage walls.  He even
showed me his one toy..  a jingly-ball that didn't jingle anymore.  The bell
was rusted.  He tried to play hide the finger..  he had taken my finger in
his mouth and tried to take it somewhere.  Briefly.  He quickly realized
that he had no hidey hole to take it TO.
 
Five minutes later, the girl came back and put the water bottle in the
holder.  The fuzzie drank for ten minutes straight..  once he realized that
there was water in there for once.
 
My question to everyone is this... if leaving him in the store is the
correct thing to do, why do I feel so terrible about it?  The thought of
that fuzzy sleeping on a pile of his own excrement makes me so angry..  he
was falling over himself just because I spent a few minutes with him.  I
don't care what anyone else says..  THAT was the HAPPIEST fuzzie in the
WORLD!  For five brief minutes, someone payed attention to him..  and he was
happy.
 
I am going to call the ASPCA tomorrow morning.  I am also going to call
Animal Control tomorrow as well.  Any other suggestions of actions I can
take against these (and I use the term loosely) people would be gratefully
accepted.
 
I also DESPERATELY need re-assurance that I did the right thing in leaving
him in there.  Suggestions on other things I can do for the ferret would
also be appreciated.  He looked so sad when I left..  I could practically
hear his ferret-tears falling, and I DID feel his sad eyes on my back as I
walked away.  I am crying again... it hurts...
 
     --Bryan
 
Tenaka and Cayanne: Daddy.. can you bring him home?
Jabba: Yeah!  I need a friend of my own!
 
Bryan: But what about the other fuzzies that they'll stuff in that
very-same cage?  If I go get this one, then more will take his place.
 
Tenaka, Cayanne, and Jabba: But why should HE be the one to suffer in
the store?
 
Bryan (sigh)  I don't know, kittens.. I don't know.
[Posted in FML issue 1827]