DCN Extra

Members of the Biggest Little Ferret Shelter and the Northern Nevada Ferret Network write this newsletter.

The NNFN, Northern Nevada Ferret Network is a group of ferret enthusiasts who get together and talk ferret talk, how to raise money, how to spend money, ideas, how to get the needed education about ferrets out there, etc.

The BLFS, Biggest Little Ferret Shelter is a no-kill ferret shelter where no ferret is denied the right to be a ferret. www.renoferrets.org

New volunteers always welcome! The NNFN is a 501(c)3 non-profit organization.

To contact us email redferret4@yahoo.com Join our Yahoo group at nnfn@yahoogroups.com or visit www.nnfn.net.

I must apologize for taking so long to get another newsletter out. With so many changes in our lives, I haven’t been able to keep up with everything. But welcome to our extra special edition!

I feel there has been some confusion over the shelter closing yet we still have ferrets for adoption and we continue to educate. So I will explain.

The NNFN (Northern Nevada Ferret Network) is a 501(c)3 not for profit organization. Our main goal is to educate the public on proper ferret care and such. We also support authorized shelters/rescues. The BLFS (Biggest Little Ferret Shelter) is a separate entity that was authorized by the NNFN. So the two entities worked together in order to increase rescue efforts.

The BLFS has closed, but the NNFN is still there to educate as it was before the BLFS happened. The NNFN still has an outstanding vet bill, and continues to rescue ferrets out of CA, and emergencies, along with rehabilitation and re-homing of ferrets. With the humane society and WCRAS joining forces and moving into a bigger building last February, there shouldn’t be a need for a no-kill ferret shelter such as the BLFS, as there will be much more space for ferrets and less need for euthanasia. Add to that foster homes for special needs ferrets, and all should be better. Or at least we’re keeping our paws crossed.

The ferrets that the NNFN may rescue, will go to foster homes, such as mine. I am no longer considered a shelter, I am a volunteer who offers room to foster and rehabilitate ferrets.

I think some of the confusion may have come from the fact that I happened to be president of both organizations. This is probably a lot my fault, as it was just easier for me to run the two organizations as one. The BLFS is now strictly a foster home, and I have resigned as president of the NNFN. Our new president will be making her announcement shortly.

Home

News!

Melatonin implants? We need your feedback. If you have been using the melatonin implants, we’d like to know what you think. Are they working? Cost? Availability? Please email me at redferret4@yahoo.com and let us know your thoughts!

There has been quite a bit of sadness surrounding us lately. Us, meaning the board members and NNFN volunteers.

It first started with the loss of our first miracle ferret Buddy. We knew there would be a day that he would run out of miracles, but we hoped we’d have a while yet. His mommy Ardith has offered him everything possible. Two doctors, specialists, all the antidotes you can imagine. Buddy suffered from adrenal disease, insulinoma, cardiomypathy, and an autopsy revealed that he also had a tumor on his scruff. He recently went in to have some teeth extracted, we were so happy when he pulled through the anesthesia, we were so very grateful for yet another miracle for him.

Unfortunately time had ran short for Buddy. There were no more miracles left.

Even though Buddy was living with his mommy and furry siblings. It still hit me real hard when I heard the news. I didn’t realize how truly bonded I was to the little fur ball.

After the loss of Buddy the realization came that Buddy stood for a lot, including the Biggest Little Ferret Shelter. He was our first miracle rescue. I had to close the shelter due to lack of funding and excessive need for placement of sick ferrets. It seems all ferrets end up sick at one point in their lives, and they ended up here at that point. As much support as I had from my friends and volunteers, the six of us just couldn’t continue unless we won the lottery. Closing the shelter was a tough decision, but it had to be done. We have a long ways to go to recuperate from the financial damage.

With Buddy gone and the shelter closed, I personally felt lost. Followed that was the news that my 8 year old Grinch who is supposed to live forever, had renal failure. Grinch has had two adrenal surgeries, a splenectamy, was on melatonin implants and now the renal failure. It just couldn’t be true, he’s the last of my original four, and he can never die, he has to live forever. Unfortunately, I finally had to say my final goodbye to him just a few weeks ago.

Then, an adoption gone wrong, our screening process failed, and now we have a ferret who lost his eye, you can read about Coco on page 3. All of the recent events, add my two jobs, and I’m sure you understand why the newsletter has taken so long to come out. My apologies for being late yet again.

The good news is, we have a new ferret who has volunteered to write for our newsletter. Buddy was our original spokes ferret, but now he’s busy at the rainbow bridge guiding others towards miracles. Maybe he’ll pop in occasionally and write us a little note or two.

Asta la vista, Baby!

Governor Schwarzenegger has been involved in a ferret related hit and run.

The ferret involved known only to us as Deo was driving in a blue beetle from his home in Canada to assist his California cousins in the crusade for freedom. He was supposed to be meeting the Governor at the time of the accident.

Deo has told us that he believes he was set up by the Fish and Game Commission in an effort to further portray ferrets as vicious. He now fears for his safety and has gone into hiding.
He vows to clear his name and continue the quest for freedom for all ferrets. He will continue this from under a large dresser in a country up north. Deo says,” I’ll be back, eh!”

Coco is a CA confiscate, a sweet albino boy who liked humans but not other ferrets. There was a lady who had been calling me for several weeks about adopting him. We spent hours on the phone. Education, that’s what it’s all about right? I had an odd feeling, but she insisted that she could handle it. I asked her how she will pay for veterinary care and she promised she has credit cards, and she’s started a savings account, oh all those promises.

A week before Christmas she called wanting to know if it’s okay to put Neosporin on Coco’s eye. You see, her son accidentally slammed the ferrets head in the door. I asked how bad the eye was, and she said it’s sticking out of the socket. He also had a seizure after the initial slamming of the head.

I insisted that she needs to take him to the vet. She insisted that she has no money. Finally, I said that we can put it under our account. I didn’t promise that we would pay for her ferret’s vet care and then give it back to her. I had every intent to claim the ferret back due to the breach of contract. (Our contract says you have to have the financial means to provide the ferret proper vet care, and she couldn’t do that.) My priority was to get the ferret to the vet.

The vet said had she brought the ferret in sooner, they may have been able to save his eye. Also, because of the concussion, had she not brought him in, he would have probably not made it through the night.

Since the ferret came in under our network, it could only be released to one of us. Which means she couldn’t pick up “her” ferret. This of course made her mad, and the threatening phone calls started.

She finally told us she has the money and she’ll pay for it all, so we said, okay, go pick up your ferret, the bill has to be paid in full. She showed up at the vets office with her very young daughter, and told them that I promised that I would pay her veterinary care. They know better, I’ve never paid anyone’s care. Just the shelter ferrets. Then she told them that she had a verbal contract with them, which of course there was none. So then she decided that she needs to scream and yell at everyone at the clinic, because you know, that’s going to make them give her an animal. Yep, real smart. She only made a fool of herself. We only felt bad for the little girl who is being taught by her mother that this is acceptable behavior.

Then more phone calls to the vet, all threatening, I’m going to sue you, you stole my pet, blah blah blah, not once, did she ask how Coco is doing. She had no idea he had to go in for a second surgery. She has no idea he would have died had he not gone in when he did. She has no idea, and she didn’t ask.

The phone calls from her to the vet begin to disturb their daily business, and unfortunately, I had to call my attorney. The vet had to write her a letter, and she was told if she continues to call, they will call the police for harassment. I had to call her and inform her that as per my attorney’s advice, I am to not give her back the ferret until she pays us back in full.

Coco is doing great. He’s a permanent resident in one of our foster homes. He will be in our network for the rest of his life. He is adjusting well to having one eye.

As for the lady, I have a hunch she went and bought a baby ferret. Had I listened to my odd feeling about her when the adoption took place, Coco might still have his other eye.

There might not be another ferret frolic.

Actually, as far as I know, the current board members are not putting one together this time. We are hoping we can get some new volunteers in that have the motivation we had three years ago, but perhaps we’re just not advertising enough that we need help running this network.

If you want the NNFN to start having meetings again, let us know, we have a location, and we have an idea for time, we just don’t want to do it if people aren’t going to come. Currently, we hold mini meetings during our two events a month at Petco. Anyone is welcome to join us.

Putting events together is very exhausting, and most of us have some very ill animals to tend to. Not to mention we work long hours to help cover the expenses. We really do need more help. And there is no better time than now for our community to come together and help.

After adopting out so many ferrets, it gets to a point where you get many updates on them regularly. Since email seems to be the most convenient way to communicate nowadays, it seems my phone doesn’t ring as often.

Unfortunately, because email is so easy to say “Oh, I’ll get back to that later”, I sometimes fall real behind in responding to your updates.

I apologize. Especially recently, I have been terrible. With closing of the shelter, merging the websites, going to school, still working, and now I have a husband to keep happy, I have truly fallen behind.

So, apologies all around, I hope you understand. And please, keep those updates coming! They really lift my spirits, and in this line of volunteer work, it’s much needed.

Free Trade My Furry Tail

I often see people looking to adopt a ferret because they think it will be less expensive than a dog or a cat. The assumption is because it is found in the Small Animal section of the pet store it is going to be like a hamster. Well most everyone who has a ferret knows that is wrong, but did you know that cost depends greatly on where you live too?

It’s not just city ferret vs. country ferret, though that will make a difference on availability of items, but the country you live in has a huge effect on how much you pay for certain items. The highly acclaimed Canuck Ferret found only in the vast expanse of Canada can sometimes be a costly pet, though his many fans think he is well worth the expense.

I often look online at the many ferret stores to see what is available for my Canucks, “ohhhing” and “aahhhing” over the cages and toys. The prices seem reasonable, a Midwest 2 level cage for only $179, a cute little Beetle Bed that they can ‘drive’ in for only $7.99 and a bag of Totally Ferret for $13.99. Yes these are in American dollars, but I can splurge these are my babies right? But then I go to order, and shipping is another $50.00 or more at some places, then duty is on top of that. So I am paying at a minimum $75.00 more than I planned to. So I have to find a new plan.

What is a good Canuck to do? The ferrets can’t live without food, I can’t live without a home for them, and well yes they can live without the car but why should they? So I go to my local store. I am going to look for these items and make a happy ferret home! Off I trot to the mall; they have a great pet store, lots of selection and a huge ferret isle. I find all the items there with only one problem; the Midwest cage is $289, the Beetle Bed is $24.99 and the Totally Ferret food

is $21.99. Stricken I am back to doing math and trying to figure out what is cheaper. I am determined to find prices that are comparable to those I saw online. I am on the hunt. I want affordability for my little Canucks!

So we search and search and we find out that some items are just more here, the Midwest cage seems to range from $279-350 CAD but the Totally Ferret food can be found for only $16.99 a bag. As for the Beetle Bed, well I paid the $24.99, because my ferrets couldn’t wait for that item, and they’ve been seen cruising up and down the coast with it.

The next time you are on a message board and you post that you overpaid for a $200 cage, please forgive the silly Canuck who posts back that you got a deal. We are still waiting for retailers to realize that our dollar is worth more than a penny. In the meantime I’ll trade you some Maple Syrup for a bottle of Tone!

~Shannan Skitch

Worst Nightmare

I guess everyone would have a different definition of what their worst nightmare might be. I suppose, for someone like me, losing all my pets at once would be on the top three. But we don’t really think about these things, because what are the chances right?

Well, it happens more often than we might think. And to people who deserve it the least.

Approximately 6 weeks ago. A person’s worst nightmare came true. Out of courtesy, I will keep the person anonymous, we’ll call her Kate.

Kate is a very kind woman who works hard. She volunteered to take in several ferrets that were older and unwanted. She didn’t buy them, she didn’t do anything other than rescue them. Like I said, they were older ferrets, who nobody wanted. Kate also lives in California. Yes, ferrets are illegal there. And yes, the law is the law, but it’s not like Kate rushed over to Reno and purchased a baby ferret at the pet store, no, she took in the older, sickly, undescented, un-cute, un-cuddly ferrets. The ones that usually get thrown away. And she gave them everything they needed. Food, shelter, medical care, and lots of love.

While driving home from work, Kate received a call on her cell phone. Apparently, someone had burglarized her home. The rest of her drive home she didn’t care if all her furniture was gone, she didn’t care if the house was destroyed, all she cared about was the 11 ferrets and one cat. 3 of the ferrets were out roaming free, she hoped they didn’t get out.

Now, one would hope that a police officer would have compassion and would not turn you in for a silly law if your home was robbed. One would hope I said, this was not the case. I’m sure the officers on the scene were just doing their job.

10 of the 11 ferrets were confiscated. The 11^th one, a blind 9 year old insulinomic girl, was seen walking out of the house, to the backyard, through a hole in the fence, to the other back yard. No effort was made to stop her.

Kate showed up just in time to witness her furry blessing to be snatched away. She had a heart attack, went to the hospital, had several more heart attacks while in the hospital.

The 10 ferrets were sent to an animal shelter, were micro-chipped, and a week later they came here.

The 11^th ferret was found thanks to the diligent efforts of friends. Juliet, was then brought to Reno to join her friends. Unfortunately, Juliet’s age and insulinoma got the best of her, and she had to be helped across to the bridge.

Of course Kate wants her ferrets back. But the reality is this. She lives in CA. The ferrets have been micro-chipped. Her only option, move out of CA. So that is what she is doing.

I wanted to say a special thank you to a few of people. Seems I have been overwhelmed with so many things that I sometimes neglect to show that I recognize the efforts put forth by others.

I want to say thank you to Char, for willing to take on the Presidency of the NNFN, even though just like me 3 years ago, she doesn’t want to. Ardith, for continuing her support to us. Holly, for her support and artwork. Deva for her artwork. Molly for taking in fosters, January for taking in fosters, Amber for taking in fosters (that turn into permanents somehow). Dr. Cameron Ross and The Carson Valley Veterinary Hospital for their award winning veterinary care and their patience with our vet bill. And last, my new husband, for reassuring me I haven’t lost my mind.

We’re having another yard sale! When? Haven’t decided that yet, have to check the weather reports and plan a weekend when I’m not busy (ha! that’s a laugh).

If you have items to donate, we will gladly take them, we’ll even be happy to pick them up.

Currently, we have a descent location, but if you have one we don’t know about, please tell us, we’re certainly listening.

All proceeds will go to the NNFN vet bill, which is currently at $2,800.00

And if you don’t like to sell, but like to buy instead, well, we have some great goodies for sale. Our famous ferret sun catchers are almost all gone, so if you’ve been wanting one, order it now.
We now offer t-shirts and greeting cards with new designs, we can also do stickers and magnets, choose one of our designs or give us your favorite furry picture and we’ll be happy to make you an item of your choice.

We still offer bedding as well.

For more info, go to our website at www.nnfn.net and click on ferret shop.

Images and Information are property of the NNFN. Contact our webmaster if you would like to use images or information about our ferrets on another website.
Copyright © 2004 Northern Nevada Ferret Network