Ah yes, another lovely Saturday in the Wherret Ferrets Halfway House and
Ferretry.  Some of the usual, some of the not so usual.  Dixie gives birth
to a single kit and eats it.  That's not very usual.  The phone rings - that
happens a lot.
 
So the woman on the phone tells me she had adopted a ferret from the SPCA
for her 12 year old son and they were having trouble with her.  Seems she
was nipping them a little too much and although they were very fond of
little "Keisha" they thought she may be a little too rambunctious for them.
 
So I suggested they bring her to me and I would trade them Keisha for an
older, more sedate male named Willie.  They liked the sound of that, said
they would come right over.  They did and I answered the door.  Mum was
standing there with a little cage with Keisha inside.
 
"So this is her" I said, carefully taking the cage from her and placing on
the floor on the *other* side of the room.  I handed her son Willie "This is
a ferret," I said,  "What you have brought me, is a mink."
 
Mouths drop open all around.
 
Seems the local SPCA can't tell their whole hobs from their spayed females,
but worse, they can't tell their ferrets from their mink.  I'll say she was
a little nippy - I'm staring at a juvenile mink in my ferretry, and she's
staring back with a rather wicked glint in her eye.  The SPCA were informed
immediately by a somewhat distressed and dare I say damn pissed off mum, who
let that "ferret" play with her four children.
 
The SPCA phones me, wants to know what I plan to do with the mink.  I asked
them how they managed to adopt it out without knowing what it was.  They
still want to know what I plan to do.  I asked them what they plan to do
when I tell the local papers about how they adopted out a wild animal and
called a tame animal. We seem to be at a standstill.
 
So - does anyone know what I should do?  This critter, while certainly not a
very nice pet, uses a litterbox, eats kibble and crawls back into her cage
after playtime to sleep.  She is obviously not *wild*.  The local wildlife
rehab tells me she's too tame to release, so they will probably destroy her.
Now what?  This doesn't seem fair.  Agriculture Canada isn't open on the
weekends, so no help from them.  I don't want to see this animal destroyed,
but nor do I want the SPCA to come swooping down like the FBI and take her
back because they will most likely destroy her too.
 
Any suggestions?
 
Sheena
Wherret Ferrets Halfway House and Ferretry
Ferret Association of Greater Vancouver
[Posted in FML issue 1637]