Lynn Wrote:
>Maybe you shelter moms can tell how you do manage to get everything done
>that you do.  How do you go on day after day?  Get your energy from?
>How many times have you wanted to quit & what has kept you going?  Do
>you think you experience more happiness or sadness in the ferrets that
>go through your hearts & shelters or does it even out?  What do you do
>for relaxation, fun?  How often?  What kind of support do you get from
>your families?  Are they understanding in what you do?  What is a day
>like with you?  What is your schedule like?
 
A typical day here begins at about 6am when my son has to get up for
school (he's ten years old, two ferrets here are his) After his morning
routine, and he gets on the bus which stops at our house since we're in
the boonies.  Then, it's critter time!  I greet the ferrets upstairs in
the living room first, giving out medications to those needing it.  Other
than my own three personal ferrets up here, there are three rescues
upstairs, where I can watch them more, nearly TEN year old Granny,
desperately ill PB, and Chloe, the dainty flower who may or may not be
adrenal, and who is being watched like a hawk until we get to the ferret
vet this week.  I also have to let out dogs, our own, plus (last week)
the 7 rescues we had.  A mother and her 5 pups I pulled from the pound,
and another big male (all Siberian huskies) from another pound who was
destined to be gassed if rescue didn't come for him.  I was already at
my limit, but, better crowded and we fill that LAST empty dog crate, than
him lose his life, right?  Everyone up here is given food and water, and
a little individual attention.
 
Then on to business.  Checking email, a vital source of inquiries for our
adoptable furkids.  Can have over a hundred emails on any given day, some
personal, some junk, a LOT of adoption inquiries.  The worst of those are
(though I KNOW they are well meaning, but it IS irritating) people who
don't sign emails, and those who simply say "Please reply and give more
information and photos of your animals available."
 
I hate that, because everything I know about every animal AND their
photos, is ON the very web pages they failed to read.  All they did was
click on my email address and send me that phrase, not bothering to tell
me even their name.  MOST of those get a polite, brief reply of "All
information and photographs of adoptable critters is on our website at
www.mystyxrescue.petfinder.org   :o) thanks for writing!"
 
I simply don't have time for anything else, and I always put the smiley
face in to make it sound less terse than I really want to convey.  I feel
if you are REALLY interested, you would look at those we have, read about
them, and make informed decisions.  I feel it is the responsibility of a
potential adopter to make that effort.  After all, I go through a LOT of
effort to maintain the web pages and update them often, please have the
courtesy to look at it, it's hard work, which can take hours, but that's
later in the day...I also have adoption applications online, and my terms
of adoption, as it can be time consuming emailing twenty or thirty of
those per day... After the emails are done, it's website time.  I have
several I maintain, my own two, one for a friend, another for an email
group, and, I am the new Webmaster for Heart of Ohio Ferret Association
and Rescue.  They (or, we) are about to get a petfinder page too, so,
that's another page to work on <G>.  That usually takes about 2-3 hours
to do, thankfully, the email list page is not very active.
 
continued in part two...
 
Kim Wolf
Mystyx Arctic Breed Canine, Feline,
and Ferret Rescue of Galloway, Ohio
www.mystyxcritters.com
www.mystyxrescue.petfinder.org
[Posted in FML issue 3775]