How Helping Hands Ferret Rescue Came About It will soon be a year since I started my shelter and thought I would share with all of you how I got started. I am an animal lover and always have been. I have had many dogs, cats, birds, fish, horses, goats, pigs, cows and chickens over the years but never a ferret until Cody came along. Cody is an albino and my son Mike bought him at Rogers Flea market in Ohio, for $30.00 and was told he was only 7 weeks old. There was a back yard breeder set up there selling baby ferrets. He told my son that he should feed him bread and milk for few weeks then give him any kind of cat food. I didn't know a thing about ferrets back then. So for the first day that is what we gave him bread and milk and a little kitten food out of a can. Cody was only here for a day when I got hooked and feel in love with this white ball of fur. I wanted to know all about him so I searched the Internet and the first web site I found was Ferret Wise I read a lot of stuff on their site and then I searched for more and I came across Pennsylvania Ferret Rescue. From there I got in touch with PFRA in Greensburg to see about adopting a brother or sister for Cody. I ended up with one of each a brother and a sister. They are now like three peas in a pod you cannot split them up ever and as much as I try they wont let anyone else in their little world. Joey is also an Albino and Phoebe is a sable. Then I adopted a few more and also took in a couple that was headed for the Humane Society. I ended up with 13 and that is how I got my name I Love My 13 Ferrets. Sad to say I lost one of my babies last year right after Christmas to Insulinoma. She was six years old and part of a four that I adopted from PFRA. After that it seemed that everyone locally found out I had ferrets and my Vet kept referring people to me. I knew if I was going to take them in I had to adopt out so I started a shelter. Finding a name for it was easy. I just prayed and asked the Lord. He gave me the name Helping Hands. It will soon be a year that I officially opened my shelter. I also have my 501-C papers. I received them in the mail back in August. I have had as many as 24 shelter ferrets and I am now down to 12 of them. Right now with my 12 and the shelter's 12 I have 24 that I take care of. All are up to date on shots and all have been ADV tested. To me it is very important to test for ADV. I was first made aware of ADV through PFRA and then again when I read White Russians story it made me cry. I feel so bad for the ferrets that get this terrible disease and pray all the time that a cure will be found for it. I do test for ADV and all of mine are negative. Thank God!! I love what I do and since I am semi retired it gives me something to do with my time. My husband is talking about building a room on off my dining room 18 X 24 just for my kids if we can swing the money. He has some of the material from different jobs he did but we still need a lot of material. He told me to dream and he will do it little by little and in a few years I will have it unless we receive a miracle. So now you know the story of how I got started. I know it is long and probably boring to some but that is how I got started with ferrets through my little albino boy named Cody whom I love more than words can say. My daughter lives at home and she helps me so does my one son and my five year old grand daughter. She loves them all and she knows each and everyone by name and who goes in what cage :-). She is quite a ferret Mom for five and she thinks nothing of cleaning ferret pans and washing their dishes. You know the old saying many hands make light work will her little hands are a big help to make my day go easier. She gets mad at me if she comes home from kindergarten and I have them done. To all of you from all of us at the Helping Hands Ferret Rescue we pray you have a Safe and Prosperous New Year. Hug your fuzzies tight and pray for all the ones that need forever homes or who need rescued out of bad homes, pet shops or those that have been turned lose to fend for themselves. God Bless You All Helen and The Weasels From Helping Hands Ferret Rescue http://www.angelfire.com/biz7/hhferretrescue/ [Posted in FML issue 4009]