Ok, To heck with this. I'm not a small shelter. I just didn't want a
new ass chewed. I'm Marlene B., here at the Richmond Ferret Rescue
League. We have 5 "Foster", aka shelter locations here in VA. Can
we save every ferret? No. Can we try? You bet my sweet butt we can.
ESPECIALLY from an animal control agency, in this case, the Arlington
Animal Welfare. This borders VA/MD. It tore me a new hind part to have
Lauren email us again about 2 more ferrets, where NO otheir shelters
would even consider taking. I know for a fact exactly which shelters
said no.
How on earth can you shelters closer than we are, sleep at night,
knowing you said... no.?????? Two 4 & 5 year old ferrets heading to a
certain death. You know they are terrified already - they've been at
this Animal Control Agency for almost 2 months. We picked up 2 otheir
similar cases from this same place in Dec. I just am grateful that
Lauren keeps trying to help these little guys/gals. She doesn't have
to try. I imagine it's not in her job description. But she still does.
She also sends their weekly vet's accessment of each ferret's health.
In the case of the 2 in-coming ferrets, one has insulinoma,the otheir
a small mast cell tumor on his face.
And, yes, RFRL just doesn't say "No". Sometimes we try to talk a
"civilian" to keep an older ferret. Sometimes we tell the owner(s)
if their ferret(s) are under 3 yrs old, they might be able to find a
co-worker, neighbor, who knows? to take their ferret. It's one less
for us - Because we always have to make room for otheir ferrets who
will be coming in. Ferrets like the Arlington ferrets.
RFRL has 117 ferrets in our system. I do not like having over 25
ferrets in my home. Right now, I have 34. I'm in Richmond, and handle
most of the geriatrics. Paige in Amelia has 23. Kris in Waynesboro has
14. These gals do most of the adoptions. Karen in Culpepper has 23.
Mark in Henrico currently has 3 - these are his personals, they all
came from us - he's been our best spokesperson since 2004. Mike has
4 - he's our newest recruit, adopted from us 2 years ago and started
picking up ferrets in August '09. He's placed 5 ferrets for us, Leslie
has 8- she moved to S.C. last Sept. When her lease is up, we hope she
moves closer to VA. She drove up to Richmond this past Friday just to
help us with the Pet Expo on Sat. Freda has 8- she does not do
adoptions. She just cares for them. We have 2 more couples who would
like to join us. Nicole and myself have been trying to get togetheir
for the past 4 months. She and her husband drove about 1 1/2 hours to
the Expo just to meet us. She's coming to visit me this Thur. Nick and
his sister also came to the Expo - to meet us, they stayed all day
long, and we're in the process of finding out the best way he can help
out. I know everyone is flat broke now. I was laid off from work Nov.
'09. RFRL ferrets come first. It's that simple. Paige is a cancer
survivor, like me, and now Kris has some health issues, as does her
husband. And they are so young. Both 29, if my memory is correct.
So - WHY are otheir ferret shelters saying no to a KILL shelter?
This just doesn't make any sense at all. If a person takes on the
responsibility of a shelter, then the animals are also their
responsibly. Bottom line.
Marlene Blackburn
Director
RFRL
804-276-3905
Please feel free to call - or flame - or whatever. I can take it - but
the ferrets sure as hell don't deserve this crap.
Oh,and my email addy is [log in to unmask]
[Posted in FML 6617]
|
