It is unfortunate that in your story, Jennifer, there are two people at fault. You and the shelter operator were obviously not on the same page; she did not warn you about medical costs or care for senior ferrets (unless I am mistaken and you left that out) and you for not researching Pheobe's needs before taking her into your home. Yes, you are mostly to blame, because as a ferret owner, you should have known that an older ferret needs a considerable amount of time and care as well as money towards medical bills. As with any animal, you should know what you are getting into before you decide to take them home, even to foster. If you knew she couldnt afford to help you out, why did you take her? The biggest loser in all of this is Phoebe. It is so incredibly sad and heartbreaking that there are ferrets born every day who should never have been bred, who will never have a permanent owner. Blaming someone who spends their free time caring for animals who do not have loving homes, whose careless owners did not research the pet they were buying, did not care enough about an animal life to learn how to care for them...its callous. We are human beings and make mistakes, you both obviously made them. You dont need to call her out and throw blame around helter skelter over the FML. If no one will adopt to you, then you should look into another animal, like a cat or dog, right? If you had taken a special needs ferret from my shelter and cared for it for 10 months then brought it back because you didnt know what you were getting into, I wouldnt adopt to you again, either. Im sorry, but shelter operators ARE busy people who have to take care of MANY animals at one time. They need foster parents to help them out! You complain about not having a life while you had this ferret, oh poor you. There is no pity I could possibly feel for you. That shelter operator gets ferrets dumped at her door at all times of the day and night. She relies on other people just to spread SOME of the work around so maybe she can work for a living or get a few more minutes of sleep. So, you spent a lot of time caring for a ferret; so what? Do you want us to forgive you for abandoning her when she needed you? Forget it. Learn from your mistake by only taking on what you can handle from now on. Taking care of an animal life is a gift, so next time, dont squander it. Swallow it and be responsible. And remember: those baby ferrets get OLD in only a few years. If you cant handle it, dont get one. Period, no excuses. Im not writing this to start a war, you brought this onto the FML. So I am going to give you my opinion, and I bet you 50 bucks there are a lot of people who agree with me. Maybe you shouldnt air your dirty laundry on here anymore. N.M. [Posted in FML issue 5210]