All ferrets are special and we all want to find the perfect home for them.
When a little one with a special need comes along, whether it be medical,
physical or psychological it is much more difficult to find that perfect
home and usually when it is found it gets filled up quickly.
 
It's very difficult to place ferrets in homes because people can talk and
act like they really care but some only want to get what they want and if
this means deceiving the shelter caretaker they'll do it.  I don't know
any shelter caretakers that this hasn't happened to.
 
Many of the ferrets that come to shelters may have originally been in a
good home but for whatever reason, that changed and they were sold, given
away, or taken to a shelter, or the home took on too many ferrets and now
get less than minimum care (not getting out of cages daily, litter boxes
and cages not being cleaned regularly, not fed or watered regularly, etc).
 
Think about the Utah case.  That person had over 200 ferrets in horrible
environmental conditions.  Some of the people that gave her their ferrets
thought they were doing a good thing for their ferret, while others didn't
care, but either way, the ferrets silently suffered, many died, while they
were with her.  Their nights and days were filled with disgustingly filthy
cages, horrible smells, sounds of others in distress, contained in small
cages, no human interaction for days on end, little food and water and
when the containers were empty no one to refill....
 
Even on a small scale you have to be careful.  Some people will drive long
distances to get ferrets needing homes, only to place them in small or
dirty cages and not take proper care of them.... yet they sound good over
the phone or on email....
 
Not every shelter has volunteers to visit homes and chech them out before
adopting to them or to make follow-up visits to make sure all is still
well.  For those that do it is an exceptional blessing.  For those that
don't it is very difficult....
 
hugs to all. tle
Troy Lynn Eckart
Ferret Family Services
http://www-personal.ksu.edu/~sprite/ffs.html
http://www.geocities.com/Petsburgh/Haven/5481/
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[Posted in FML issue 3672]