I consider myself a newbie to the FML & Ferret Community.  I fell in
love with ferrets the summer of 2002.  My son and his family moved to
Las Vegas in June 2001 from California.  For Christmas that year my son
bought my two gradchildren a bay ferret.  He had always wanted one, being
frim California we had never even seen one.  The next summer 2002 the
kids came to visit grandma in California for the summer and of course
brought Alaya their ferret along.  She was so sweet, just over six months
old, being an animal lover all my life I fell head over heels in love
with this special creature.  We had the summer together, the kids, myself
and my newest granddaughte Alaya.  Oh, how I missed all of the kids when
they went home in August.  I wanted a bay of my own so much, but they wre
illegal in California.  I read about them on the internet and bought
magazines and Ferrets for Dummies.  I joined Ferrets annonymus, offered
to foster ferrets in Calfornia for kids needing temporary homes, not
knowing how the wahole system worked with FA and their email system and
answered an ad and described where I lived and promptly got into trouble
wiathe the moderator for giving out too much info and ossible alerting
fish and game and causing problems.  I never whent back to the site I
was so afraid and emabarassed that I had blundered so badly.
 
Things in life never stay the same and due to multiple back injuries and
osteoporosisf my 30 year nursing career ended with that depression set in
and I was one of the depressed & disabled.  My two oldest sons presented
me with a baby female ferret for my birthday in October of 2003.  I had
a bay of my own now, I spoiled her and showered her with love and
attention, how can anyone remain depressed with a baby ferret in the
house.  Misty pretty much had the run of the house, I still lived in
california but out in the rural area of northern California, my landlord
loved anoimals and had no problem with me having my little girl.  It was
hard to not be able to take her out and show her off, or take her places
out in public.
 
In July of 2004 I ;relocated to Las Vegas, where my oldest son and his
family lived.a I had read so much about 24 carat ferret shelter and
rescue< I wanted to become involved with the rescue of ferrets.  As soon
as I settled in at my sons I found CJ's website and e-mailed her letting
her know that my experience with ferrets was limited but I had 30 + yrs
of nursing humans and wanted to help out at the shelter in anyway she
could use me.  After about about 2 months of emails back and forth we
finally talked on the phone and she told me she really needed volunteers
to help clean cages each Saturday as well as helping with ear cleaning
and nail clipping.  She let me know it wasn't a glamourous job , it was
smelly hard work.  She didn't expect me to last long not many volunteers
did stay long, they were looking for fun things to do or to just come
hold and play with the ferrets.  I explained I had done nursing for many
years and iat is also not glamoooorous as the TV or movines portray.
 
My first day of volunteering I was so nervous, it was Septmeber, hot,
ther was over a hundred ferrets in cages all over the two bedroom house
turned into a shelter.  Every availbale space had cages with ferrets of
all sizes, ages, colors,in varing stages of Adrenal Disease as well as
other deveststating diseases they develop.  Paralized ferets, bald
ferrets, ferets with Insulinoma, Lymphoma, shelter shock, malformed jaws
and teeth, chronic diarrhea, Cancers of every kind you can imagine,
ferrets with heart disease, holes in their hearts on multiple mdication.
 
Then there was the stories of abuse, neglect, abandoment.  That first
day, I met CJ Jones aka Weaslewoman, the owner of the shelter who had
devoted at that time nine years of her life to rescuing and sheltering
ferrets, cats, dogs and small exotic animals.I had never met anyone like
CJ, I was in awe of her.  I met Idee another volunteer who had bee coming
to clean cage and help out the shelter for years, I met Dave and Cindy a
sweet married couple who voluteered as well, Dave drove to California,
Arizona, Utah and any other state where ferrets needed to be rescued.
He worked with the underground ferret rescue to get ferrets out of
California before they would be euthanized.
 
I was amazed and a little overwhelmed at the dedication of these people
I had just met.  I was welcomed with open arms into a comuntiy I didn;t
know existed.  It is difficult to describe or explain the difference
between ferret owners and other pet owners.  The communtiy is tighter,
it reaches not only all over the United States but all over the world.
Once you have been owned by a fuzzy and bond with a fuzzy it becomes your
child or your children.  It is rare for an true ferret lover to have only
one ferret.  You may start out with one but they multiply.
 
Within a month of starting my involvement with the 24 carat shelter I had
met and made friends with ferret lovers all over Las Vegas, I started
fostering very ill fuzzies suffering usually from complications of
Insulinoma or new onset and/ or Shelter Shock, I could only bring one
sick baby home at a time I was still at ,my sons house and had no place
to set up a sick bay for critically ill kids needing sub-q fluids and
frequent meds, feedings and fluids.  By mid November I had my own 2 bdrm
apartment, there I was able to set up the extra bedroom for fostering
the very ill kids from the shelter.  I started out with only a few kids
and before long I had more than 30 fosters and I had adopted 4 kids with
sad stories.  I inherited four from my grandchildren and I had multiple
perenent fosters.  My depression lifted, I got off the antidepressants
as I became more and more involved at 24 carat.  During the almost two
years I spent in Las Vegas I was adopted into a new family, the Las Vegas
Ferret Community and met many ot the extended family of that communtiy.
People from California, Arizona, Utah as well as other states.  All of
these people were warm , freindly and definately passionate about their
babies.  At the yearly Opne House Fund Raiser, ferret people came from
neighboring states to adopt new kids, enter drawings, eat and visit with
one another and compare stories, exchange ideas, information and help the
shelter by buying lots and lots of raffel tickets.  I was truley amazed
at the turn out and the support of the ferret community for 24 carat.
These people are very special people, dedicated to saving the lives of
ferrets and to find a safe and loving enviornment for them to live in.
 
I have found that evn though I have moved away from the Las Vegas area I
am still in close contact with these very special friends.  they have not
forgotten me.  I get calls and e-mail as well as pictures from them.  I
have a deeper, closer relationship than with people e I worked with for
15 years.  I miss them all so much they are the swe etest, kindest most
caring people I know, not just with people, with their ferrets as well
as others.  This pride and devotion for their ferrets and their passion
for the issues that come with ferret ownership is unique.  I have never
experienced anything like it.  I feel so lucky that I was able to become
involved at the 24 carat rescue and shelter.  It changed my life for ever
and for the better.  I feel blessed to have been a part of such a
wonderful cause.  I have loved so many in such a short time, our little
fuzz butts give a special love when they feel loved and safe.  So many
foster kids have come to live with me, many kids got well with my
care,under the direction of our great and special vet Dr. K.  There were
some that although their time was limited with me, those babies were my
special kids who I loved so much, my heart broke each time I had to say
good-bye to one of them, it never got easier, it got harder to loose
these very special kids.  We had a special bond, they were at the end
of their short life span, they seemed to know it, they became my lap
ferrets, if I was sitting down he or she was in my lap and would stay
there as long as I let them, they would follow me around when I was doing
chores and they absoultely knew Duck Soup Time, one boy Slinky would
weave in and out of my feet like a car waiting for his portion.  He knw
the sound of the microwave beep, that ment his soup was ready, he had his
own bowl and his special place he ate, I fed him 4-6 times a day and he
ate every single drop, his cancers kept him emiciated but he had heart,
he fought to the bitter end and my heart was in in pieces when I had to
take him in to be euthanized.  would work hard to save a kid and give him
every chance and benefit if there was doubt I would give them more time
with intensive care.
 
There came a time when I knew I had to take someone
in I could not allow anyone to suffer.  It was something i promised Dr K
when ther was ssigns of pain or suffering and qauality of life was gone I
brought them to her to realese them from their disease ridden bodies.  It
was the thing didn't like to do but I learned to do it because it was a
part of the process of caring for them and it was always the kindest
thing to do for them but me being selfish and not wanting toloose that
special love and bond we had developed.  I have young healthy ferrets and
I love them but the truth is the fosters I have cared for until their
time to cross over the Rainbow Bridge was deeper and special and very
hard to describe.
 
The Kids I have loved and lost in just over a year will be with me until
the end of my days, I can only hope they are waitnig for me when it is my
time to cross ove.  There was Mean Bandit ( a bitter) he never bit me,
Idee introduced me to him the first day I worked at the shelter.  It was
love at frist site for bothe of us.  I said he loveed Idee and I because
he had a thing for older wpomen.He knew my voice and he would be in his
hammie or sleep sack and hear my voice and he was out waiting for me to
talk to him and pick him up.  He knew I was the Duck Soup lady and waited
patiently for his bowl.  I would tell him as soon as I had a empty cage
he could come stay with me for awhile.  Unfortunately, it just wouldn't
happen.  Someone would become ill or a new rescue woudl get shelter shock
and the cage was filled as quick as it emptied.  I averaged 30 + ferrets
the number was usually.  all of these kids were on twice a day medicines
or more frequently, twice a day Duck soup and some twice a day subq
fluids.  Ther just wasn't space for a stable guy to just visit for
pleasure, alathough it had always been a plan for the future that we
would have a couple of cages set up so sme of the old timers unadoptables
would rotate though my place to have more frequent time out to play and
more human attention and enrichment.It just never happened, there was
just too many really sick kids that needed special attention.
 
Well, Bandit finally got to come stay at my house, he had been stable at
the shelter but by no means healthy He Adrenal Disease as well as
Insulinoma.  He developed a raging urinary tract infection and infected
prostatic cyst with urinary retention and blockage.  I had to rush him to
the vet and then worry all day about getting a call that said he needed
to euthanized Luckily he made it through and he was able to spend the lat
months of his life with me and I was able to spoil and shower him with
lots of love until his time to cross over.  I could fill many pages with
stories of brave and wonderful kids I have loved and lost.  I made a
promise to the kids I have fostered them adopted when the shelter closed
its doors and I move north to Reno.  I would give them a forever home
with lots of love and affection and I would be here for them right to the
end.  I would if possible hold them in my arms when they took that lst
breath.  I have kept that promise when the vet allowed me to be there
which has been most of the time.  I brought eight of my fosters from Las
Vegas, it was difficcult to leave some behind butfinances forced me to
make painful decisions.  Had I the money I woulkd have taken them all
with me and started a shelter/hospice for the kids no one wanted.  I had
to have my brave sweet Slinky euthanized the day before i left Las VEgas.
A very hard decision but the vet pointed out that if he went into Status
Eplipticus for low blood sugar while I was out in the middle of I 95 what
would I do, I would be alone how would I cope.  My emotions were ragged,
he was special, of course they have all be special but it had only been
three months since my oldest sons death, the main reason I was leaving
Las Vegas, I couldn't see a Desert Cab without breaking into sobs, I
couldn't see a motor cycle or drive by the street where the woman ran a
red light and killed him without breaking down and sobbing.
 
Life is ever changing and it was time for my life to change some more.
My daughter-in-law, now a widow and my cousin drove the 26ft truck with
my belongings, I drove my little Hyundi with 14 ferrets, some small cages
and necessary items for the ferrets packed in my car, not an inch to
spare, we were packed like Sardines.  We made good time and found y
sisters house in Reno.  I said goodbye to all my friend in Las Vegas,
we had a dinner together at Fremont Street.  A chapter in my life was
closing.  Things would never be the same again.  I would miss CJ and her
son, all of the resident ferrets I had become attached to.  I would miss
Anna, Mark, Idee, David, Kelly ad so many others.
 
I know this is very long and I have to close at this time so I will
contine this tale next weekend.  I will not have time to do it before
then.  I hope I have not made too many typos.  I am unable to proof read
at tiis time...
 
Thank You
Joelene
[Posted in FML issue 5356]