As a deaf kid growing up my parents didnt allow me to go to school the first 7 yrs of my life and when i did go to school my parents took me out when i was in 5th grade cause they got tired of me comming home crying cause kids made fun of me i remember a time when my dad said i would have to prove to him and others that i can make it in this world and be who i am, i used to belive that til one day i got to have my first pet i could call my own when i was 10, my parents forced me to grow up in a hearing world instead of a deaf world and oh how i hated my dad back then, i used to have to sit in front of a t v set and have my hands on the screen and watcha progrem called lucy ball so i could learn how to talk cause she had a big mouth, my parents didnt want anyone to know thay they had a deaf daughter and by georage i was going to talk no matter what.. ok enough about me, i never new anything about ferrets til one day my son brought one a big white rat witch i thought was a rat and not a ferret and i told him to get that thing outta my house he was watching it for a friend while they went on vacation so i gavein and let him and he had to keep it in his room so i couldnt see it, i was scared of it, a couple weeks later i go in to get dirty clothes forgetting the rat was in there and saw him in the cage no food no water the littler box wasnt cleaned out and he was laying flat just stearing at me, Thats how ferrets came into my life, it made me mad cause i tought my sons better then that to care for somthing that they was responsable for , the family never came for their ferret my son didnt take care of it and so their for i was going to get rid of him, well the ferret wound up being mine and i feel in love with him, that was 15 yrs ago, next thing i new i had one ferret after another cause i couldnt say no and i guess thats when i was becomming a rescue and not even relized that word til i meet a friend who was a dog rescue and thru her i learned to rescue and adopt out to the right homes for these little guys. But Maxwell then Faroke and Aires were the very first 3 ferrets that i kept as my personals.. sence then they have went to the rainbow bridge with maxwell being almost 9 yrs old, ok enought of that part.. BUT the other night there was an emerencey meeting for all animal shelterscause of our weather being so bad , snow ice,digets colds and the shelters were called togather cause of the dogs cats gunei pigs ferrets and all other animals being dumped right and left and surrenderd to shelters and so forth, anyways i to the meeting and one rescue who didnt even know me said WHATS SHE DOING HERE. shes not a dog or cat rescue shelter. the guy there said ohh yes she was asked to come cause shes a ferret rescue shelter and shes titel to be here just like the rest of us, She looked right at me when she had said that and i did think about going ahead and leaveing cause i felt i didnt belong thinking about the words my dad used to say to me but i didnt go cause Connie came up and said hay egnore her and lets go sit, the meeting started up and everyone had their say in what to do incase of an emergey with the dogs cats or even a recoon was even brought up , Finaly Stanly looked at me and said Sue i know alot of us no you here but would you mind comm9ing up here and expline who and what you are and what you do for shelters and also what you do for us. I was scared crapless cause i never stood in front of 20 some odd people at the same time to have to expline something and then i heard them words again from my dad i had to prove yourself and God how i hated them words, so connie hit my arm and said go Sue Stan is talking to ya so i got up there and slowing interdused myself and talking about the ferrets what i do for them and all what ive learned thru the yrs about them as well as about other animals i have taken in and helped thru the yrs but my main thing was the ferrets that were in my life and how they have kept me wanting to go on as a ferret rescue shelter and helping these kids out, by the time i was done Stan said any quations from any one to her ask now, so the lady that wined why is she here was first to asked and her words were how can you be a rescue if your deaf cause you talk so well, i explined if you had the parents i had youd be talking too perfectly but the truth is i told her along was i had 22 ear surgeys i wear a bionic hearing aid and half the time that dont even help so i just read lips lol and i laughed when i said that so im deaf an oral is what i said anyways to make a short story longer and beside it wasnt about me its the animals were here for.. i told them and im proud of being a ferret rescue shelter and im proud to be able to help other rescues that are out there just like us rather they be of any kind of animal, we all just have our preferances of what we want to do, but being a Ferret Rescue/Shelter is what i do and will do til they take me off on a gurney to be 6 ft under lol. I want you ferret rescue shelters out there who read this and ferret parents to no how much i appresheate you all and that we have alot in common and thats Ferrets, for alot of you guys Because of you guys i have come along ways from here, ferret groups and ferret forums and just privet ferret friends, my spilling may suck and it probley always will but at least yas understand me and no where i come from. we have our hardships, ups and downs, none of us are perfect shelters but we try to better ourselfs for the ferrets in loving and caring for them and seeing they get into great homes, we all have made mistakes encluding me and we learn from our mistakes, i dont have a hate bone in my body for anyone i love everybody rather they like me or not cause like i tell a person who cuts me down i always say thats your problem not mine, im friends with everyone even my enimies that have cost me friendships with others like one person told me one time and i complined why did you put a few month old rescue to help me being a 14 yr rescue shelter and it cost each others friendship and his words was thats yours and hers problem not mine well sence then i have lost disrespect not only for him but he cost a good friend we wants were, I guess what im trying to say is Im glad to be here, to be able to call myself something and to be able to help not only shelter by to help others out there in need, Im happy to be able to no yas all and i have learned so so much from yas thru the years and that i pray that the next 15 yrs with ferrets will be good just like the last 15 ive been with them, I am proud of being called the Arkansas Ferret Rescue Shelter for the Hospice and Sp needs and i will carry on that name til the day its time for me to go and reunited with all my rainbow bridge kids that have been are waiting for me thru the yrs and oh what a happpy day that will be Please dont petty me for that is not what wrote this here for just except me for who I am is what i tell others.., Susan Arkansas Ferret Rescue.... [Posted in FML 6574]