It's been a rough few days. I was contacted by a person (not sure if they want their name mentioned, so I'm going to omit it for now) Tuesday morning. Rollen's family had called a breeder that Rollen did business with, asking them to take the four ferrets that had been removed from the house by the family. The breeder allegedly refused (another story altogether!!), and referred the family to a shelter in a nearby state. The shelter had taken possession of the four ferrets. To make a long story short, the shelter turned the four ferrets over to me Wednesday night. I had them spayed and neutered and will take care of any other medical needs, and then return the ferrets to this shelter, who I'm sure will care for them lovingly. I've also begun several steps towards making sure that this NEVER happens in NJ again. Heed my words. If you are a breeder, seller, pet store, distributor, shelter, or anyone else trafficking in ferrets, and don't have the appropriate license, it's over. You better have a license, even if you're from another state. Don't think you can get away with it. I don't care if you are the Queen of England, you are breaking the law. That includes ferret shows. Consider yourselves warned. This isn't business. It's personal, and gets more so every time I look into the fearful eyes of the displaced ferrets in my shelter. I had a lot of folks asking who I was referring to in my post the other day about breeders masquerading as shelters, and asking why the person who told me about it didn't tell the FML. This woman is not on the FML. She is not involved in the ferret community like we all are. The state I was referring to was Pennsylvania. Because I wasn't in the "shelter" and therefore can't give firsthand info, I'm not giving names. All I ask is that you think about where you adopt from and donate to. Look around. If it's dirty, if there are a lot of babies or whole ferrets, if they won't let you look in all the cages (not handle, just look) then I would think twice. My opinion. All I can say is that anyone who comes to my shelter is welcome to look at all of the ferrets. They are not welcome to hold them all, because frankly some bite, and my oldsters (9 1/2 & 8) don't need the stress of being handled by a stranger. But anyone is certainly welcome to look. On to a happier note: Two more ferrets went to their new home the other night, they'll be living with Matt and his family. One is a young, sweet female, the other a middle aged, very scared and very aggressive biting boy. Matt and his son have been extremely helpful to us, bringing supplies, and cleaning cages. I'll be personally thanking everyone who donated to SOS as soon as I have time to catch my breath. I wanted to give you all some ideas on how your money is being used. These are the prices we've paid for the medical's so far: ADV Tests: $10/per @ 82 ferrets Neuters: $22/per @ 35 ferrets Spays: $60/per @ 27 ferrets (1 spay was done at Barnegat for a higher cost, one more still needs to be spayed) Tumor Removal: $150 @1 ferret Also there have been other medical related charges for supplies such as Synphenol 3, syringes and Distemper vaccines, saline solution and tubes for ADV tests, Baytril, Orbax and Clavamox, etc. The boy that needs the PU has pneumonia and can't have surgery until he clears up. We also have 13 adrenal surgeries that need to be done, the first two will be done Friday. The vets that have done all the surgeries are Maywood Animal hospital in Maywood, NJ, and Ridgefield Park Animal Hospital in Ridgefield Park, NJ. Barnegat Animal Hospital did one of the spays on one of the girls down at Kim's. Kudo's to the vets involved, especially Dr. Kim at Ridgefield Park. Also thanks to the vet techs who volunteered their services, which helped us to really contain many of the costs and get extra low costs on the surgeries. My hope is that when all is done, there is money left over that SOS can use to help other ferrets in need. I have a fun story about one of the rescues. The other night we had one of the regular shelter gangs out for play time, and after a bit noticed that one of them looked really orange. Upon closer inspection we realized that one of the Christmas Ferrets had broken out of his cage and was on the floor playing along with the others. We decided to move him into their cage with them, and they're all co-habitating really well together. I guess he was lonely :-) Two of the ferrets weren't eating on their own. They seemed starved for attention, and would eat if I held them while they ate. I put them in a cage together, and they are much happier, and eating on their own again. I think that in the shuffle, many ferrets that had cage mates became separated from them and were literally mourning them. Poly (pronounced Polly) has settled in as queen bee in my bedroom. She and Niko pretty much ignore each other. When we let them out of their cages, they go to each others cage to "steal" food :-) They have had a couple not too pleasant run-ins with each other, but are both just pretty much scared of each other, and keep their distance. I've received all sorts of wonderful things in the mail over the past few days, but I'm at work and don't have my notes, so I'll wait until I can get it right to thank everyone tomorrow. But you all know who you are, and I thank you! Anne [Posted in FML issue 3295]