My first hands-on ferret experience was just over two years ago.  I knew
what ferrets were before that, but my image of them was as working
animals.  I'm originally from England and I had heard of and seen them
being used to chase rabbits out of their burrows.
 
I now live in Miami, FL and due to the large feral cat problem here, I
am part of a 'trap and return' neutering program.  My poor Jesper had so
many run-ins and abscesses with young males moving in to the area every
6-months that I knew that I had to do something!  As the shelters here
are overrun, animal control will not pick up feral cats.  Even if they
did, the county shelters are 10-day adopt or kill type places.  The
no-kill shelters, also overrun, especially in kitten seasons (three
times a year here in the Sunshine State), will take animals if you
surrender them as your own, but encourage the trap and return programs.
 
I already had a humane trap to catch a raccoon which was coming in the
cat door and trashing my kitchen and eating everything in sight (well,
that is another story).  So I started using that to catch the feral cats
and take them to a local vet who would neuter the toms for free if you
belonged to the CATS program (Care About The Strays).
 
I put out the trap on night in a different location trying to trap a
particularly smelly tom cat - he also got into the habit of pooping on
my patio furniture.... yuck!
 
To cut this rambling story short, the following morning I looked into the
sprung trap hoping to see a black whiskery face, when I saw a teeny-weeny
little silver fuzzball... I had no idea what to do with her, and as it
was Sunday morning, I decided to keep her overnight until I could get
hold of some of my shelter contacts.  Of course by Monday I had the worst
case of FMV.
 
She had wheedled her way into my heart and household.  I quickly read all
I could and learnt how to take care of her.  I could tell she was a baby,
my guess being about 12 weeks, and no doubt ran away from a local home -
but no one I asked in my neighborhood was looking for her.  It took her
about 6 weeks to settle in and perform her first dook-dook dance of Joy!
What a wonderful sight!
 
Carl joined us form a shelter 6 months later and the double-trouble is a
pleasure to watch...
 
Alison
[Posted in FML issue 5057]