Don't know what it's like elsewhere, but the public animal shelters here
in the Seattle area, do NOT return animals to previous owners once they
have been surrendered.  It's written into the city & county codes.  Stray
animals, once the stray hold of 3 days is up, will not be returned to a
previous caretaker once that animal has been adopted to a new owner.
 
Our surrender contract states that we will not return an animal to
a person who has released their animal.  We're dealing with no-kill
shelters here on the FML, but public shelters can euthanize an animal
within hours of when the owner surrenders him.  The caretaker
relinquishes ownership of the animal at the time the surrender occurs.
Valerie is out of luck.
 
Valerie should certainly have checked around to find out what
arrangements could be made for her ferrets once the military accepted
her.  But it shows a definite lack of maturity, if not responsibility,
for her to have surrendered her animals without knowing what her future
would hold.
 
Our shelter does adopt to some "young" people.  Our adoption policies
require that we check with landlords to make sure that ferrets are
allowed.  Many young people lie and say "yes," without believing that we
actually do follow through and check with landlords.  Or, we find that
although animals are allowed, the young people have not paid the pet
deposit and so the adoption will not go through.  If there is a
responsible young person, great, but most eliminate themselves.  Sandi
 
Best Little Rabbit, Rodent & Ferret House
a non-profit animal shelter
14325 Lake City Way NE
Seattle, WA 98125
(206)365-9105
Open 7 days/week or visit our on-line store at:
http://www.rabbitrodentferret.org
[Posted in FML issue 4074]