Hi,
 
I have a feeling that those of you who have replied to the FML about
ferretdiva's post about fostering need to read her post again.
 
I am not sure just how is was possibly interpreted that ferretdiva was in
any way mad at people and scaring people away from fostering with temper
tantrums.
 
All of us shelters have different ways in the way we deal with the public.
The Killians have their way, ferretdiva has her way, and we have ours.
 
In defense of ferretdiva's logic, I have to tell you that we have had the
same experience.  People are very gun-ho about fostering while they think
it is "neat" to have multiple ferrets running around the house.  Then when
the first sign of illness strikes, all of a sudden they "no longer have the
time", or "just can't handle any more vet bills".  We even had one guy who,
after talking to him a great length, told us that when he owned his
previous ferret, he would go out into the yard, find a snake, and throw
the snake and the ferret in the bathroom to see "who would come out on
top."  And he wanted to FOSTER for us??  I think not!  :-)
 
Try as we might to screen potential foster families (just as we try to
screen potential adopters), we sometimes make mistakes and we end up taking
the ferrets back.  I find this part to be very frustrating, but we keep
plugging along.
 
I am not sure just how the Killians run their shelter, maybe we should try
to visit them sometime, but "scaling back" their shelter work due to
"medical problems" concerns me since they do not believe in the fostering
system.  Bill/Diane, do you just turn ferrets away?  If so, aren't you
hurting the animals you promised as a shelter to help?  In my eyes, there
is no "scaling back".  When we organized as a shelter, granted, we did not
know the vast number of people out there that surrender ferrets just
because they're bored with the little guys, but we have never turned any
away.  We too have been experiencing human medical problems.  Rather than
turn ferrets away, we fully condone fostering.  Then again, the potential
foster family needs to be well known to the shelter and screened.  (In my
opinion.)
 
One of the great problems with posting to a newsgroup of any sort is that
the tone of the message cannot always be conveyed without using tons of
smiley faces and such.  I believe that ferretdiva was only stating facts.
These facts come from her personal experiences (experiences that our
shelter shares), but nowhere did I see that she "hates" people or even
tells people not to foster.
 
Just my $0.02.
 
-Mark Zmyewski
 Cloud Nine Ferrets
 Huntsville, Alabama
[Posted in FML issue 2740]