>Date: Wed, 18 Mar 1998 14:50:38 -0800 >From: zen and the art of ferrets - bill and diane <[log in to unmask]> >Subject: zen on a couple of shelter things... >We do not place these older ferrets often but rather these become "ours". >We try for one less disturbing loss of home. Same with health problems. If I had to keep every ferret over age five that has come into my shelter in the past six months, that would amount to well over 25 ferrets. If I did that for the next two years, well, you can see how absurd it would get. Thank God for our wonderful foster homes who open their hearts and homes to our older shelter ferrets. I would rather move them to a permanent owner or foster home where they can get more attention than I could possibly give, despite the fact that yes, it's another move. In the long run it is better for the ferret. Usually they are only here in the shelter for a week or two for observation/shots/cleanup before moving to the foster home, and often the new owner or foster parent visits with them here first. Perhaps you are not getting as many seniors as we are. It has become a real issue here. Over 30% of our turn-ins have been over five since last August. Most of these have been in the six and up catagory. Sad part is that most were turned in for no good reason, and had obviously been seriously neglected. We lost several due to various advanced cancers, etc. within a week or two of them arriving in the shelter. IMHO in most cases if the owner had either turned them over earlier or gotten treatment on their own earlier, they would still be alive. A good 25% of the ferrets that come into our shelter are in need of surgery or other expensive medical treatments. We do try to adopt out as many as possible after surgery though. Meg with the broken leg, Thunder who had an intestinal blockage removed, Scooter with the benign cutaneous tumor. All of these ferrets were successfully adopted out after surgery. However a ferret with lympho or insulinoma, etc. would stay here of course. >Behavior problems stay or don't stay depending upon rehabilitation. We >have never had problems placing pairs. We have placed multiple pairs on >the same day at the better shows. We have even placed a triple on the >same day with pairs. What I was referring to was other shelters who have waiting lists. I have been contacted by several, but they want young, healthy ferrets who can be adopted out singularly. We have been able to succesfully rehab 90% or more of the behavior problems. The rest end up becoming "ours". Right now we have about 6 ferrets unadoptable due to agressive biting. Most were abused by previuos owners. We also have been able to place quite a few pairs, and even a triplet here and there. >So maybe we don't completely agree. We do not have trouble placing 2 or 3 >year olds at all. Even when someone is also looking at our kits. You have >to point out the advantages AND disadvantages of both. For first time >owners the older ferret is usually better. We don't normally have 4 year >olds in the shelter. We usually get younger or older. Just a difference >in location perhaps. I never said anything about 2-3 year olds. We don't have trouble placing them either. I wouldn't know about trying to adopt shelter ferrets and sell kits at the same time, although I can look at it from adopting very young shelter ferrets (yes, we do get them turned in at 8 weeks old) vs. more mature 2-3 year olds. For a first time owner, we generally prefer them to take a 2-3 year old who has been box trained, knows not to nip, and won't eat their bedding, etc. We try to match the ferret with the adopter, just as most shelters do. -Anne [Posted in FML issue 2252]