No one said rescue was easy - but this case involves 2 ferret shelters, 1 shelter associate, 1 police dept , an animal shelter and finally private practice vet hospital all which go unnamed in the name of diplomacy - with intentions of saving a needy ferret kid. Ferret Wise received a phone call on Thursday afternoon. A third party reporting that a friend had custody of a stray ferret which had been recovered in the Plymouth NH area on MOnday . The firend had decided to keep the ferret. By Thursday the friend no longer wanted to keep the ferret- reason there was a medical problem. NOt all that surprising in the shelter library of tales. The firend of the short term ferret owner is an owner of 4 ferrets herself and unable to practically take on a new ferret with serious medical hardship- never moind bring an unknown ferret into her group. She was nice to call. The story continues on and on and although Ferret Wise admits only ferrets with special needs form police & investigators because there is a medical problem that sounds urgent, and because the ferret was released to an unsavvy good intentioned owner by the police - I instruct them to bring the ferret on FRIDAY ( today) and have $100 donation to help us get the emergency vet appt for Sat AM. Well there was no call and no ferret which arrived as of 4 PM on Friday. I placed an email to Ferret Svcs of Freedom asking her to check into the Mxxx Animal Shelter - as the folks hinted the ferret with injury might be left there. After many emails back and forth, a phone call arrived from shelter Mom Steph at Ferret Svcs of Freedom. She had called and left a message for the director of the Mxxx animal shelter and had finally uncovered more in the story-- The ferret had been turned in - with a broken front leg/foot ( not far from what I figured) . It is currently at an animal hosp for evaluation by the animal rescue. We will know little until the AM - but if the ferret can be released w/o cost to Ferret Wise - we will take this ferret in and try to heal the front leg/foot with the intention of finding him a new forever home-- HINT HINT! This ferret had been turned in to police - and the party decided it might be neat to keep it -- so the police agreed. Ferret Svcs of Freedom had received a call on Monday and was told when the PD called them back the ferret had already been placed in a home. I guess it was fortunate the third party called on Thursday ( or maybe not the aggrivation of tracking this stray now discarded injured ferret down could easily manifest a chronic ulcer-- never mind 40 million grey hairs). If the hospital can / will with the permission of the animal shelter release the ferret. A relay will take place tomorrow... and the ferret who will be named Hop A long ( Hobo sounds too much like "NO:") will make his way to Ferret Wise for a chance at a better life. Ferret Svcs of Freedom offered to try but the care could not be as intense for healing with the shelter Mom working 10 plus hour work days, and then tending to her elderly shelter rescue kids. And Funds are tight in both shelters... Lucky needs another $280 for his surgery next week, we paid a $200 state license fee this week plus $141 in electric bills, and the accountant is due his fee for filing taxes.. still this kid needs care and we want to be able to help. We will undoubtedly need a fund raiser for "Hop A Long" --orthopedics are not cheap for ferrets! So please, say some prayers and put on your thinking caps. No 4 year old sable ferret should go to rainbow bridge because his leg got hurt when likely being tossed out of a vehicle, or nearly run over by one. We will fill you in on the details - but hopefully that will be once he has been stabilized and immobilized at the shelter waiting for his emergency vet visit on Monday AM. We can fix boo boo's like this we did for Troubles in 1997, and then for Renny a few years ago. Both ferrets kept their legs -- we hope to work one more miracle-- Jerimiah would like that. So big white guy in the sky sporting a chocolate spot -- smile down on us and this needy boy.. lets see what magic you can make!.. Shelter Mom Alicia, for the many faces of Ferret Wise www.ferretwise.org a 501c3 organization [Posted in FML issue 5262]