I have a question about ferrt sitting. Who does the feret sittig fir a shelter person when they need to get away for a weekend or four days?. It is always said whe going on vacation leave your ferrets at a shelter to be taken care of while you are on vacation, business tip, emergency trip anytime you need to be away from home for a few days. I totally agree with this as shelters are the best and safest place to ;eave your fur kids when the need arises. However who do shelters call upon when a need arises for them to get away for one of these same reasons. I need to make a four day trip to NC to visit my son who I have not seen in 1 and 1/2 years. I am just wanting to go for the weekend. With 15 ferrets currently in house along with various other pets how does that happen? NO ONE is willing to step forward to take ove for the weelend and allow us to have a short break. Several people have been contacted, most of which we have helped in the past with similar problems but all are too busy or just canot be bothered. Some have ligetimate reaons other just can't "make a comminet to stop by once a day" and clean a few litter boxes and make sure that fresh food and wate is available. What do shelter operators do in situations like this? I could easily set them up with enough food, water to last them at last a week, locked in a totally safe ferret room, not in cages. But this also leaves the fact that litter boxes will not be cleaned for four days and what a mess that would be to come home to. How in good consciences can this happen? It comes down to having to make a choice between doing this and not being able to enjoy the visit, or just not going at all which is not fair to the rest of the human family and myself as I really need to see my son, and visit his new house which now is old to him. Not only the total guilt at having abandoned my charges for this short amount of time but what about the ones that need meds on a regular basis? If I had any truly sick ones that needed constant short term care then ofcourse I could not leave them but fortunatley at this time I only have one that needs a pill everyother day and would survive, probably no worse for the wear if he missed a day or two of his meds. I guess what I am asking for is permission to amke this happen. We would leave very early in Firday morning, after setting up plenty of extra food water and litter pans, we would not return until later Monday afternoon pr early evening. Under normal circumstances I would neve dream of leaving them for more that a few hours, never even left the overnight before, but I really need a break and a weekend getaway and like I said I haven't seen my son if over a year and a half. How an I possibily do this and not feel the guilt and worry about them while I am away. We are currently at our lowest numbers in years, all are in good health and get along very well so no bloody fights are expected. I am in central Fl Winter Haven to be exact. Just what am I expected to do as all shelters operators know we sacrifice so musch of our personal lives for the care of thses ferrets but there comes a time when you just really have to have a break. How would the ret of yuo handle it as i am tourn between and just cant bting myself to make the choice, my wife says that if I don't go things will make a drastict change here, my son says if I really loved him I wuld find a way to make it happen. Caught between a rock and a hard place with the hard place closing in against the rock and the rcok not budging at all. [Posted in FML issue 3376]