Graduating law school and earning a JD does not make you a lawyer --
nor does having an MD beside your name instantly qualify you to treat
people. Only by practicing the knowledge that you have learned and
then putting yourself out there before the public and exercising that
knowledge and experience can you truly then say, yes I am .... and the
same is for shelters and rescues. Unless you are out there each and
every day as a rescue or a shelter doing the tough work for ferrets
in the community, as far as I am concerned, you lack the experience
to truly understand what we shelters go through each day and night.
Having ferrets or raising ferrets does not earn you the right to
lecture to any shelter mom or dad on how to properly operate their
operation or criticize them for the decisions they alone make daily --
most of these decisions are "life and death" for ferrets in their
care and, alas, some not yet in their custody.
In another lifetime, I raised and showed Scottish Fold cats. After
successfully operating a "cattery" for years and earning many many
rosettes for my work with Folds, I closed my cattery and most of my
older breeding cats became my pets and the remaining kitties were
"petted out" to my friends in the Fold world. It was just too costly
to continue. I now have the unique position of understanding the roles
of both breeder and rescue as I have practiced in each realm and I am
very very careful not to mix the two separate worlds. However, similar
pitfalls await both breeder and rescuer, if not prepared. I went into
each endeavor with my eyes wide open and having full knowledge and
understanding of the massive undertaking I was about to embrace, ever
watchful of those possible mistakes and missteps. And, yes, I have
made mistakes but never at the expense of ferret (or cat) lives. More
miscalculations than anything.
I must admit, some of the postings from the past week have angered me
just a tad. So much so, that my coworkers have inquired as to why I
seemed -- not my cheerful self. And as the days passed due to work
requirements and the busy weekend with my shelter kids and all of those
chores, I have had an opportunity to read Millie and Cindy's post
today and reflect on their words and decided that I am not THAT angry
anymore. Sigh..... But I am still fuming a bit from folks who think
that I have never once considered the fact that I could, at some
time, become a hoarder or not take proper care of my ferrets due to
skyrocketing numbers in shelter if I was not careful. Now, there's an
original thought! Pleeese..... don't insult me! And don't judge me by
what others have done -- or not done! They are not me and I am not
them!
It appears that Millie and I travel similar roads. One of the reasons
I will always pick up municipal or "kill shelter" ferrets is that I
too have paved that road in the tri-state area here in Memphis and the
surrounding communities. Some of my foster moms and I have contacted
and keep in contact with these shelters to ensure that we will be
called when they receive ferrets. I fear that if we fail to pick up
ferrets from any one of these shelters for any reason, we will not be
called again. Thankfully, we have not had any difficulty in finding a
place for these babies when these calls come to us. Most of the time,
they immediately are transferred to our vet office for examination
and treatment, when necessary. Then they are quarantined for the
appropriate amount of time. Most of these poor kids are either
"Christmas Ferrets" that appear at the shelters around this time each
year and the older and sick ferrets. The young kits are usually adopted
out readily as I have a waiting list for kits and teenagers. We hope to
place the older ones in foster care.
Petco does refer people with unwanted ferrets directly to us and calls
on us to take ferrets left on their doorsteps.
We carefully watch Craigslist and Petfinder and have found ferrets in
kill shelters through these venues. All were rescued. I scan Petfinder
on Fridays and about two years ago, I remember seeing a petfinder post
from the Waveland Municipal shelter and the photograph was of two
ferrets in a carrier but only listed the name of one of them, a male.
When I called, I asked the administrator about the other ferret in the
photograph and she said their vet said the female had adrenal disease
and they were going to euthanize her that afternoon. We accepted them
both and both were flown to Memphis the next Monday. But now we have
foster families in the southern part of Mississippi that can pull
ferrets from the southern coastal shelters and implement more
economical travel arrangements.
We have had tremendous success with our foster program here in this
area. I think the economy has a lot to do with my calls coming from
folks who want to foster as opposed to adoption. We provide the
ferrets and the equipment and they provide the home environment and
food/treats. We have an entire storage facility full of cages and other
equipment from surrenders and donations that outfit our foster homes.
This program is absolutely vital to our shelter doors staying open at
all times for incoming ferrets. Especially for the ones most at risk
in the municipal and kill shelters.
Our shelter recently took in 21 ferrets from another shelter mom who
is suffering from a serious medical illness and needed to drastically
reduce her in-shelter numbers. I am happy to report that 9 of 21 have
already been placed in foster-to-adopt homes -- most of these homes
were waiting for them before they arrived at Raisins. Two more will
probably go out to their new foster-to-adopt home this weekend.
Raisins will always help other rescues when we can and for today,
tomorrow, next week, and next month, our doors remain open!
Respectfully Submitted,
Maren Doshier
Founder/President
Raisins From Heaven Ferret Rescue & Sanctuary
Hernando, MS
[Posted in FML 6625]
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