(Susie Lee of the Ferret And Dove Sanctuary, Inc. answers a couple of
basic shelter questions)
 
>From: Sam
>Subject: Ferret Adoption Questions
>
>I came upon your site today.  I'm currently owned by 3 ferts who are
>pretty spoiled... but my ferret math is kicking in again and I may be
>looking to adopt 1 or 2 more.  I'm 18 and will be going to OWCC next
>year, I know you're probably thinking uh oh college student!  Well, I
>suffer from depression and my ferts have been such amazing therapy for
>me, I would never leave them uncared for and have promised them I'd keep
>them the rest of their lives, which I intend to do even if it means
>having to rent an apartment instead of living in a dorm 1 day.  I have a
>few questions.  How long do ferrets usually stay at your shelter before
>being adopted?  I've heard that shelter ferrets tend to be less healthy
>than other ferrets, this is probably just a rumor but I'd like to hear
>your opinion....
 
Dear Sam...(in answer to your questions as given, below)
 
We generally keep an eye on newly turned-in or newly abandoned ferrets
just arrived with us for at least several days to two or more weeks,
depending on their health states (as checked out by the Veterinarian
Medical Director at the animal hospital) when they first arrive.
 
Many of those which are turned in are
(a) already aged, at over 5 years, and unadoptable,
 
(b) have ongoing severe health problems, usually cancers of the adrenal
glands, or pancreatic cancer known as insulinoma in ferrets, sometimes so
far advanced as to be almost hopelessly untreatable.... which is the very
reason why they're given up to a shelter.  or
 
(c) found by concerned passers-bys running loose or abandoned (as with
several cases in which we were sent to by our local Humane Society) in
apartments or houses where the former occupants had taken their furniture
or just their valuables and left the poor ferrets to starve(as well as
any cats or dogs.
 
In our county, the Humane Society officers took charge of the abandoned
cats and dogs and gave us the charge over the abandoned ferrets at each
incidence).  One happy ending for a trio of ferrets (several years ago)
who were found abandoned in this manner turned out that they were all
three adopted together by a police officer and his family who all spent
several volunteer-hours on several days with us helping and learning the
care of their adoptees before they brought them home.
 
Only about one fourth of those who are turned in, mostly the
found-running-loose and unclaimed, or, in some rarer cases, those which
are turned in because the former family has to move and cannot take their
pets....only a few who are turned in are healthy enough and young enough
to adopt back out.  These adoptions are naturally done with much caution
and care so that their newfound families will be not JUST caring, but
also responsible.
 
And that's the whys and wherefores of why so many ferrets in most
shelters , very certainly ours!, are not in the best of health.  Most of
us refuse to kill them (we absolutely will not unless the animal is in
extreme pain or going through repeated grand mal seizures or in a similar
very extreme discomfort position, wherein both we and our veterinarian
medical director all readily agree that a euthanizing situation is more
merciful for the sufferer.) just because they're elderly or have cancer
but we try to allow them their little lives and dignity with as much
comfort as we can help them with for whatsoever time they have left to
them until they make their own Passage in their OWN time.
 
Susie Lee ( [log in to unmask] )...web page...
 
http://www.angelfire.com/theforce/ferret_rescuer/index.html
[Posted in FML issue 4488]