What Shelters Go Through Please allow me a space to vent my frustration. Those of you operate ferret shelters already know the feelings through your own experiences. Those of you who don't should be aware of what is happening to ferrets out there; through ignorance, neglect and even abuse. Last week we received a phone call from someone who wanted to drop off their ferret at our shelter. She was described as being a female albino, about 8 years old, possibly suffering from a "stroke" because she couldn't walk on one of her rear legs. The owner was moving out of state and could not take her to their new home. "Baby" was brought in last weekend. Her skin was pale, fur dull. She limped very badly, with her rear leg almost sticking out at a 45 degree angle. She had neither distemper nor rabies vaccinations; had been fed a cheap, grocery store cat food all of her life. When we examined her leg, we could feel an obvious malformation and swelling the entire length of her leg. The owner said that she had been that way for about a year. Baby also had an extremely swollen vulva, which, again according to the owner, had been going on for "about a year or so". She was also blind in one eye. All of this and never a visit to a vet (of course state laws until recently prevented a vet from helping her.) We immediately put Baby on Duck Soup and extra vitamins until we could get her into the vet's (Dr. Dutton) on Monday. On Monday, Joan gathered up our crew to put away while she was gone. Our big albino male was MIA, but she went ahead and prepared for the trip to the vet's. She got the carrier out of the garage, sat it on the floor, got Baby out of her cage and put her in the carrier. Halfway to the vet's she glanced over to see two pink noses and two white ferrets looking out. Now Bear is a good sized male, who will tolerate his "gang" but dislikes new comers intensely Baby is an 8 year old who has never seen another ferret. Yet here they were in the same carrier without a fuss. In another minute, Bear curled up around Baby as if to comfort her and reassure her. Read on and tell me who do you think showed the greatest "humanity" toward Baby, Bear or the former owner. Dr. Dutton X-rayed Baby's leg and found that the bone had been splintered and pulverized; then sort of grew but never knitted She had been in constant and severe pain ever since the original break over a year ago, and now a tumor was forming in the leg. There was no way of saving the leg, especially considering the tumor. We had the choice of euthanizing her or amputating the leg. We chose the latter. Fortunately, Baby came through the operation fine, and is recuperating for her trip home this Thursday. The adrenal surgery will have to wait until she completely recovers from the amputation. Vaccinations are way down on the list. Already we have a volunteer to foster her. Yesterday, we received a 4 month old kit. He was sold by a pet store to a family as an "ideal pet for a young child". They were told to feed him mink food, with an occasional bit of cat food. They were also told that they were "cage animals", so for his entire life he was in a small cage, except after he learned to open his cage door and escape into the house. Fortunately the family began to realize that this was not the animal they were told it was, and decided to turn him over to our shelter. For four hours after being left to run here, I could not go near him without his running away - probably in fear of being caged again. Finally, after the four hours, he felt secure enough that he was willing to be picked up, fed his first taste of ferretone and love. Shelters experience these happenings regularly. It is often heart wrenching, frustrating and anger provoking, not to mention a real drain on personal finances. Please support your local shelters, if not with monetary support, then with moral support. It helps us get through times like these. Dick B. [Posted in FML issue 1556]