>Heartbroken?  For obvious reasons.  Disillusioned?  Because two of you
>lovely people emailed her rather nastily, one (or both) telling her if she
>couldn't afford to buy Totally Ferret food she didn't deserve to own a
>ferret.
>Ariel White              [log in to unmask]
 
 
Now I'm really ticked off!  I was afraid this was going to happen.  Not that
this person would stop keeping ferrets or stop reading the FML (which is bad
enough all by itself), but that someone (apparently more than one someone)
would feel the need to flame the poor woman on her choice of ferret food.
Nice going!  Aren't you proud of yourselves?  You've managed to achieve
more than you probably expected.  Now the ferret world is minus one more
potentially good ferret owner and she probably feels (rightly) that we are
all a bunch of self-righteous nincompoops.  Bravo!  You should get a medal!
 
I don't care to know who the persons were either.  But I've about had it
with pet owners who, rather than educating, grab people by the throat and
slap them in the face when they disagree with what is being done.  All
because they are so sure THEY ALONE know the right, and proper, and ethical
way THINGS SHOULD BE DONE.  Har har.  If you are so sure of the right way to
do things, then share the knowledge with people who ask.  Once we ALL were
just as uninformed as this person was and someone out there took the time to
help educate us.  Returning the favor by helping others who want to learn is
the least we can do.
 
Didn't you stop to consider that maybe, just maybe, the fact that Jenna was
concerned enough to go to a vet, get meds, and ASK FOR HELP from us when
things weren't getting better, meant that she and Vinyl deserved all the
help we could give, rather than hostility?  That maybe you should have
offered that help if you could, and if not, kept your personal nasty
opinions to yourselves?
 
Sadly, Vinyl probably still would have died.  But maybe Jenna would have
kept her other ferret, stayed with the FML, continued her interest in
ferrets, and in time offered her knowledge to future new ferret owners.
It's called the LONG VIEW folks, something that we lose sight of too often.
We're too busy calling each other names, stoking our egos, and fanning the
flames between shelters, breeders, clubs, and individual owners to see that
in the end, it's the animals who truly lose out.
 
Karen
[log in to unmask]
===============================================
Do not meddle in the affairs of dragons,
for you are crunchy and taste good with catsup.
===============================================
If you love ferrets, check out:
http://www.dartmouth.edu/~crassi/index.html
===============================================
[Posted in FML issue 2323]