I consider myself a newbie to the FML & Ferret Community. I fell in love with ferrets the summer of 2002. My son and his family moved to Las Vegas in June 2001 from California. For Christmas that year my son bought my two gradchildren a bay ferret. He had always wanted one, being frim California we had never even seen one. The next summer 2002 the kids came to visit grandma in California for the summer and of course brought Alaya their ferret along. She was so sweet, just over six months old, being an animal lover all my life I fell head over heels in love with this special creature. We had the summer together, the kids, myself and my newest granddaughte Alaya. Oh, how I missed all of the kids when they went home in August. I wanted a bay of my own so much, but they wre illegal in California. I read about them on the internet and bought magazines and Ferrets for Dummies. I joined Ferrets annonymus, offered to foster ferrets in Calfornia for kids needing temporary homes, not knowing how the wahole system worked with FA and their email system and answered an ad and described where I lived and promptly got into trouble wiathe the moderator for giving out too much info and ossible alerting fish and game and causing problems. I never whent back to the site I was so afraid and emabarassed that I had blundered so badly. Things in life never stay the same and due to multiple back injuries and osteoporosisf my 30 year nursing career ended with that depression set in and I was one of the depressed & disabled. My two oldest sons presented me with a baby female ferret for my birthday in October of 2003. I had a bay of my own now, I spoiled her and showered her with love and attention, how can anyone remain depressed with a baby ferret in the house. Misty pretty much had the run of the house, I still lived in california but out in the rural area of northern California, my landlord loved anoimals and had no problem with me having my little girl. It was hard to not be able to take her out and show her off, or take her places out in public. In July of 2004 I ;relocated to Las Vegas, where my oldest son and his family lived.a I had read so much about 24 carat ferret shelter and rescue< I wanted to become involved with the rescue of ferrets. As soon as I settled in at my sons I found CJ's website and e-mailed her letting her know that my experience with ferrets was limited but I had 30 + yrs of nursing humans and wanted to help out at the shelter in anyway she could use me. After about about 2 months of emails back and forth we finally talked on the phone and she told me she really needed volunteers to help clean cages each Saturday as well as helping with ear cleaning and nail clipping. She let me know it wasn't a glamourous job , it was smelly hard work. She didn't expect me to last long not many volunteers did stay long, they were looking for fun things to do or to just come hold and play with the ferrets. I explained I had done nursing for many years and iat is also not glamoooorous as the TV or movines portray. My first day of volunteering I was so nervous, it was Septmeber, hot, ther was over a hundred ferrets in cages all over the two bedroom house turned into a shelter. Every availbale space had cages with ferrets of all sizes, ages, colors,in varing stages of Adrenal Disease as well as other deveststating diseases they develop. Paralized ferets, bald ferrets, ferets with Insulinoma, Lymphoma, shelter shock, malformed jaws and teeth, chronic diarrhea, Cancers of every kind you can imagine, ferrets with heart disease, holes in their hearts on multiple mdication. Then there was the stories of abuse, neglect, abandoment. That first day, I met CJ Jones aka Weaslewoman, the owner of the shelter who had devoted at that time nine years of her life to rescuing and sheltering ferrets, cats, dogs and small exotic animals.I had never met anyone like CJ, I was in awe of her. I met Idee another volunteer who had bee coming to clean cage and help out the shelter for years, I met Dave and Cindy a sweet married couple who voluteered as well, Dave drove to California, Arizona, Utah and any other state where ferrets needed to be rescued. He worked with the underground ferret rescue to get ferrets out of California before they would be euthanized. I was amazed and a little overwhelmed at the dedication of these people I had just met. I was welcomed with open arms into a comuntiy I didn;t know existed. It is difficult to describe or explain the difference between ferret owners and other pet owners. The communtiy is tighter, it reaches not only all over the United States but all over the world. Once you have been owned by a fuzzy and bond with a fuzzy it becomes your child or your children. It is rare for an true ferret lover to have only one ferret. You may start out with one but they multiply. Within a month of starting my involvement with the 24 carat shelter I had met and made friends with ferret lovers all over Las Vegas, I started fostering very ill fuzzies suffering usually from complications of Insulinoma or new onset and/ or Shelter Shock, I could only bring one sick baby home at a time I was still at ,my sons house and had no place to set up a sick bay for critically ill kids needing sub-q fluids and frequent meds, feedings and fluids. By mid November I had my own 2 bdrm apartment, there I was able to set up the extra bedroom for fostering the very ill kids from the shelter. I started out with only a few kids and before long I had more than 30 fosters and I had adopted 4 kids with sad stories. I inherited four from my grandchildren and I had multiple perenent fosters. My depression lifted, I got off the antidepressants as I became more and more involved at 24 carat. During the almost two years I spent in Las Vegas I was adopted into a new family, the Las Vegas Ferret Community and met many ot the extended family of that communtiy. People from California, Arizona, Utah as well as other states. All of these people were warm , freindly and definately passionate about their babies. At the yearly Opne House Fund Raiser, ferret people came from neighboring states to adopt new kids, enter drawings, eat and visit with one another and compare stories, exchange ideas, information and help the shelter by buying lots and lots of raffel tickets. I was truley amazed at the turn out and the support of the ferret community for 24 carat. These people are very special people, dedicated to saving the lives of ferrets and to find a safe and loving enviornment for them to live in. I have found that evn though I have moved away from the Las Vegas area I am still in close contact with these very special friends. they have not forgotten me. I get calls and e-mail as well as pictures from them. I have a deeper, closer relationship than with people e I worked with for 15 years. I miss them all so much they are the swe etest, kindest most caring people I know, not just with people, with their ferrets as well as others. This pride and devotion for their ferrets and their passion for the issues that come with ferret ownership is unique. I have never experienced anything like it. I feel so lucky that I was able to become involved at the 24 carat rescue and shelter. It changed my life for ever and for the better. I feel blessed to have been a part of such a wonderful cause. I have loved so many in such a short time, our little fuzz butts give a special love when they feel loved and safe. So many foster kids have come to live with me, many kids got well with my care,under the direction of our great and special vet Dr. K. There were some that although their time was limited with me, those babies were my special kids who I loved so much, my heart broke each time I had to say good-bye to one of them, it never got easier, it got harder to loose these very special kids. We had a special bond, they were at the end of their short life span, they seemed to know it, they became my lap ferrets, if I was sitting down he or she was in my lap and would stay there as long as I let them, they would follow me around when I was doing chores and they absoultely knew Duck Soup Time, one boy Slinky would weave in and out of my feet like a car waiting for his portion. He knw the sound of the microwave beep, that ment his soup was ready, he had his own bowl and his special place he ate, I fed him 4-6 times a day and he ate every single drop, his cancers kept him emiciated but he had heart, he fought to the bitter end and my heart was in in pieces when I had to take him in to be euthanized. would work hard to save a kid and give him every chance and benefit if there was doubt I would give them more time with intensive care. There came a time when I knew I had to take someone in I could not allow anyone to suffer. It was something i promised Dr K when ther was ssigns of pain or suffering and qauality of life was gone I brought them to her to realese them from their disease ridden bodies. It was the thing didn't like to do but I learned to do it because it was a part of the process of caring for them and it was always the kindest thing to do for them but me being selfish and not wanting toloose that special love and bond we had developed. I have young healthy ferrets and I love them but the truth is the fosters I have cared for until their time to cross over the Rainbow Bridge was deeper and special and very hard to describe. The Kids I have loved and lost in just over a year will be with me until the end of my days, I can only hope they are waitnig for me when it is my time to cross ove. There was Mean Bandit ( a bitter) he never bit me, Idee introduced me to him the first day I worked at the shelter. It was love at frist site for bothe of us. I said he loveed Idee and I because he had a thing for older wpomen.He knew my voice and he would be in his hammie or sleep sack and hear my voice and he was out waiting for me to talk to him and pick him up. He knew I was the Duck Soup lady and waited patiently for his bowl. I would tell him as soon as I had a empty cage he could come stay with me for awhile. Unfortunately, it just wouldn't happen. Someone would become ill or a new rescue woudl get shelter shock and the cage was filled as quick as it emptied. I averaged 30 + ferrets the number was usually. all of these kids were on twice a day medicines or more frequently, twice a day Duck soup and some twice a day subq fluids. Ther just wasn't space for a stable guy to just visit for pleasure, alathough it had always been a plan for the future that we would have a couple of cages set up so sme of the old timers unadoptables would rotate though my place to have more frequent time out to play and more human attention and enrichment.It just never happened, there was just too many really sick kids that needed special attention. Well, Bandit finally got to come stay at my house, he had been stable at the shelter but by no means healthy He Adrenal Disease as well as Insulinoma. He developed a raging urinary tract infection and infected prostatic cyst with urinary retention and blockage. I had to rush him to the vet and then worry all day about getting a call that said he needed to euthanized Luckily he made it through and he was able to spend the lat months of his life with me and I was able to spoil and shower him with lots of love until his time to cross over. I could fill many pages with stories of brave and wonderful kids I have loved and lost. I made a promise to the kids I have fostered them adopted when the shelter closed its doors and I move north to Reno. I would give them a forever home with lots of love and affection and I would be here for them right to the end. I would if possible hold them in my arms when they took that lst breath. I have kept that promise when the vet allowed me to be there which has been most of the time. I brought eight of my fosters from Las Vegas, it was difficcult to leave some behind butfinances forced me to make painful decisions. Had I the money I woulkd have taken them all with me and started a shelter/hospice for the kids no one wanted. I had to have my brave sweet Slinky euthanized the day before i left Las VEgas. A very hard decision but the vet pointed out that if he went into Status Eplipticus for low blood sugar while I was out in the middle of I 95 what would I do, I would be alone how would I cope. My emotions were ragged, he was special, of course they have all be special but it had only been three months since my oldest sons death, the main reason I was leaving Las Vegas, I couldn't see a Desert Cab without breaking into sobs, I couldn't see a motor cycle or drive by the street where the woman ran a red light and killed him without breaking down and sobbing. Life is ever changing and it was time for my life to change some more. My daughter-in-law, now a widow and my cousin drove the 26ft truck with my belongings, I drove my little Hyundi with 14 ferrets, some small cages and necessary items for the ferrets packed in my car, not an inch to spare, we were packed like Sardines. We made good time and found y sisters house in Reno. I said goodbye to all my friend in Las Vegas, we had a dinner together at Fremont Street. A chapter in my life was closing. Things would never be the same again. I would miss CJ and her son, all of the resident ferrets I had become attached to. I would miss Anna, Mark, Idee, David, Kelly ad so many others. I know this is very long and I have to close at this time so I will contine this tale next weekend. I will not have time to do it before then. I hope I have not made too many typos. I am unable to proof read at tiis time... Thank You Joelene [Posted in FML issue 5356]