>How often do shelters allow their shelter ferrets to play?
 
A "shelter" is not a home for an animal, it's (hopefully) a temporary place
to live, get healthy, get a good meal or two every day and stay warm until
a new home can be found.  There are shelters that only house a couple of
animals, and those animals can probably get out to play every day and be a
part of the family while waiting for a new home.  There are shelters with a
hundred or more animals and it's unlikely that it's even possible for those
sheltered animals to ever get out to play.  Most dog/cat shelters, try to
find enough volunteers to walk their dogs on a daily basis, but that's more
so that the dogs will not have to soil their kennels.  It's the rare
shelter indeed, where cats can get out of a cage to romp and play.
 
Each ferret shelter does the best they can for their ferrets.  At the
very least they supply hammocks and toys for inside the cage, so that the
ferrets can play when they're awake.  Shelter operators also provide cage
mates so that the ferrets have someone to play and sleep with, even if they
aren't able to get out of their cage.  It's not the perfect situation, it's
a temporary home.
 
Whether the ferrets get out or not is really not relevant in my view.
The shelter offers ferrets somewhere to go, other than to a kill shelter,
while they're waiting for the ideal home.  When the ferret finds that home
they'll be able to play every day!  :-) If you've heard of a shelter where
you could offer to foster a different ferret every week, to give that
ferret a chance to romp and play every day for that time period, I suspect
that would be very much appreciated, both by the shelter mom/dad and by the
ferrets!  We have a couple of young volunteers, who's parents won't take
on the responsibility of a ferret, but they will allow their children to
foster a ferret for a week every now and then.  We've trained these
volunteers, see them once a week and so trust that they know how to care
for a ferret.  We very much appreciate this chance for one on one
interaction and so does the ferret.
 
Sandi
 
Best Little Rabbit, Rodent & Ferret House
House Rabbit Society
a non-profit animal shelter
14325 Lake City Way NE
Seattle, WA 98125
(206)365-9105
or visit our on-line store at: http://www.rabbitrodentferret.org
[Posted in FML issue 3397]