Today it was with heavy heart that I visited a place in Rainbow Bridge
that makes me very sad.  It's a sad thing, because it's a needless thing
and is preventable.  Hoomins have a long way to go in preventing the
many sad things that can befall a ferret.  But at least there is a
glimmer of hope that I can see even all the way up here.
 
I went to visit a meadow up here where teensy kits play in the
dandelions.  They play there until their ferret parents come here, or
until very, special, loving souls called ferret rescuers and ferret
shelter operators meet them at the bridge.  Until then, they are at
peace here in the meadow as they wait.  But before they came here, they
were anything BUT in peace.
 
These particular kits are different from other kits that come here
because they are still infants.  They suffered greatly in the few weeks
they had on earth.  They endured being pulled from the warmth of a litter
and from their mothers teets, literally.  They were processed through
surgeries and shots.  No longer was warm, rich, mothers milk, let alone
any kind of formula offered.  They were then packed into flat crates with
multitudes of other ferrets but with little to no food available and
sometimes very little water.  First in vehicles, then in planes.  The
planes are noisy, and although they could see people walking here and
there, no one came to comfort them nor check on their water and such.
Some were transported and left for long periods on airport tarmacs in the
scalding temperatures of summer.  Others in the freezing temperatures of
winter.  An awful lot for an infant to withstand and for a body that is
still developing.  All to end up at a warehouse sort of setting that
holds them a bit longer if they survive all of that.  Often times their
are many other strange creatures around in these distribution centers,
and certainly there are not many humans to care for them.  If they are
lucky and still survive that stage... much of the transport process is
repeated yet again and hopefully they survive that.  Then, they finally
come to pet stores.  They are still very tiny.  They are often with some,
even if slight, respiratory infection.  Too often they have very painful,
prolapsed rectums from the severe physical stress of taking them away
from their mothers too soon.  Their tummies are subjected to big hard
bits of kibbles that they could not quite chew yet with their delicate
baby teeth.  It's really a miracle that so many make it at all.  But it
is a cruel, cruel way to be treated and when they are in such fragile and
defenseless periods of their development.
 
What of those who do not make it?  Their last hours were spent with no
human interaction, forgotten in transport, dehydrated, starved, etc.  A
very slow and excruciating way to pass.  They pass without the dignity
that God intended them to have.
 
Today, I go to not just play with and comfort them, but to give them a
bit of news.  Humans that have their best welfare at heart are working
hard to educate other humans about this plight.  Most importantly they
are taking a step into helping to correct the situation.  It's a baby
step.  But for ferrets it's nothing less than the step Lance Armstrong
once took for his kind.  Maybe this will give them hope, and will
demonstrate that it might not always be this way.  And that unlike
what they experienced on earth ... someone not only cares, but is doing
something about it.
 
Sandee
 
Join the effort ...  please ...
http://www.ferret.org/
http://www.ferretcongress.org/
<http://a257.g.akamaitech.net/7/257/2422/01jan20051800/
edocket.access.gpo.gov/2005/05-15516.htm>
 
<http://docket.epa.gov/edkfed/do/EDKStaffCollectionDetailView?
objectId=0b0007d4809252bb>
[Posted in FML issue 5029]