Last week (issue #2159) I posted the story of the 4 pet shops ferrets turned over to the North Coast Ferret Shelter after a bite incident. When the owner returned from vacation, she denied that the man who signed the release had any authority to do so, and went to the police to file a theft report. Incidently, the man, Keith, had told us he was purchasing the store in a couple weeks, which Judy, the owner, hotly denied. On Thursday, the Prosecutor's office had given us til 4:30 pm to turn over the ferrets or they would indite us. I spent the day unsuccessfully trying to call the pet shop to offer to purchase the ferrets at wholesale cost. At 4:30 pm the ferrets were still with us. The update: I finally was able to reach the owner at her home that evening. Before I could get to the offer, Judy and her husband began to berate me and call me a thief. When I said it was not theft because Keith had signed a release, she reiterated that he had no authority to do so. I asked if she wanted to hear my suggestion to resolve the issue. She said no. We spent Friday waiting for the police to show up at the door, but nothing happened. Saturday, we had a great surprise: we discovered that the reason I could not get through on the telephone was that the store was under new ownership, with a new name and phone number!! It turns out Keith had bought the store after all, just one week after the supposed "theft". Lisa, our wonderful attorney, spoke with the Prosecutor's office this morning. (Friday morning she had faxed various supporting documents to their office.) Turns out they had found out about the change in ownership about a week ago. In any case, they apparently still haven't decided if they will pursue or not. So we continue to wait. What a way to spend the holidays! Linda Iroff North Coast Ferret Shelter http://www.oberlin.edu/~liroff/ncfs.html [Posted in FML issue 2163]