Don't know what it's like elsewhere, but the public animal shelters here in the Seattle area, do NOT return animals to previous owners once they have been surrendered. It's written into the city & county codes. Stray animals, once the stray hold of 3 days is up, will not be returned to a previous caretaker once that animal has been adopted to a new owner. Our surrender contract states that we will not return an animal to a person who has released their animal. We're dealing with no-kill shelters here on the FML, but public shelters can euthanize an animal within hours of when the owner surrenders him. The caretaker relinquishes ownership of the animal at the time the surrender occurs. Valerie is out of luck. Valerie should certainly have checked around to find out what arrangements could be made for her ferrets once the military accepted her. But it shows a definite lack of maturity, if not responsibility, for her to have surrendered her animals without knowing what her future would hold. Our shelter does adopt to some "young" people. Our adoption policies require that we check with landlords to make sure that ferrets are allowed. Many young people lie and say "yes," without believing that we actually do follow through and check with landlords. Or, we find that although animals are allowed, the young people have not paid the pet deposit and so the adoption will not go through. If there is a responsible young person, great, but most eliminate themselves. Sandi Best Little Rabbit, Rodent & Ferret House a non-profit animal shelter 14325 Lake City Way NE Seattle, WA 98125 (206)365-9105 Open 7 days/week or visit our on-line store at: http://www.rabbitrodentferret.org [Posted in FML issue 4074]