How an Ohio Rescue Came to Live in Canada
Date: Mon, 17 Dec 2007 09:39:03 -0400From: Tressie A. Dutchyn, MA
How a little ferret from Ohio comes to live with someone all the way in Maritime Canada is as much my story, as it is her story.
“Ludicrous to travel that far,” someone wrote to me on one of the many forums I belong to. Clearly this person was not aware that there are no ferret shelters in this part of Canada. Rarely does a ferret come into care at the regular animal shelters. There are kits available at some of the pet stores, and occasionally one comes up for sale on Kijiji. The closest ferret shelter in Canada is over 1000 miles away.
As a former SPC agent I knew the heartache of animals abandoned to shelters and vowed long ago that if I was ever looking for another animal companion, it would be one abandoned to a shelter. Consequently, over the years all of my dogs and cats have come from shelters.
I had acquired my first pair of sprites from the Massachusetts Ferret Friends Shelter (MaFF) when I lived and worked in MA. I had researched and read everything I could find on the Mustilidae for about a year before making the decision to adopt a ferret. My brother also provided invaluable input since he had a ferret of his own for a number of years.
Most in the ferret community know once your heart is captured by a ferret, it is for life. Last spring, when I went back to MA to visit friends, I added 2 more fuzzies from the MaFF shelter to my fur family.
This past fall I knew I wanted to add another 1 or 2 to my growing family and by now I had developed a sense of loyalty to the MaFF shelter. About the same time the news broke about the DMK rescue in Ohio on the MaFF forum. I decided then, if possible that I would provide a home to one of these rescues. Having been raised on a farm and having had an uncle who raised minks, I knew the conditions those babies most likely came from. I couldn’t rescue the minks from my childhood, but I could provide a home to a little ferret who had endured a comparable life.
As it turned out the MaFF shelter took in 6 DMK rescues, 3 jills and 2 hobs and South Shore Ferret Care had taken in 9. I was hopeful that I would be able to adopt one of these rescues. In the interim a gib became available locally when his owner couldn’t look after the two she had. I acquired one and a woman in my local ferret community, who was grieving the recent loss of her beloved gib, adopted the other. She could only take one.
I contacted Trudy Wallach, Director at the MaFF shelter and told her I was interested in adopting one of the rescues. She told me that she had wanted to keep the 3 sisters together and I knew from the way she talked about the 2 hobs she was already falling in love with them. I told her that IF any one of them became available to let me know.
I deliberated the feasibility of adding another 3. However, being a bit of a whooze when it came to winter driving, it meant I would have to fly down. Delta only allows 1 ferret per flight, although I had snuck 2 in a kennel my last visit. My other options were to wait and drive down in the spring or see whether the other shelter had any of their DMK rescues available for adoption.
Then quite suddenly Trudy contacted me and asked if I was still interested because one of the jills would be available! She made this decision after she had them at one of MaFF’s education days and this little jill absolutely loved all the humans she came in contact with and didn’t seem to mind in the least being separated from her sisters. I was ecstatic! I would make plans to fly from Halifax, Nova Scotia to Boston, MA and drive the 2 hours to the shelter, as soon as she was ready to go.
I knew that the 6 had been picked up from Ohio by people from the Ferret Association of Connecticut. The 3 jills were in estrus when they arrived at MaFF, so spaying had to wait. They all had to be tested and vaccinated, which also took a few weeks.
I waited anxiously for the clinic in MA to schedule spaying. Soon as I received word that the date was set, I booked my flight and traveled 2000 miles return to get my new fuzzy baby. I named her Bellissima, meaning most beautiful in Italian because everyone down there kept telling me how lovely she was.
On December 2, 2007 I brought Bellissima, now a sprite, to her forever home. She traveled well and did not poof
enroot. She is spayed but not de-scented. She charmed the security personnel at the airport as I carried her in my arms through the scanner.My veterinarian removed her stitches nervously expecting her to poof. Much to our mutual surprise she poofed when he weighed her.
It’s been 2 weeks now and she is settling in well – although still a little fearful of the others. However, progress is being made. She no longer snaps and hisses at them as they approach her playpen and doesn’t wolf down her food. She is showing interest in two of my sprites as they greet her nose-to-nose through her playpen bars. I am hopeful, in time she will feel comfortable enough to play with all of them, although she appears more nervous with my two large gibs.Her teeth aren’t great for one so young – estimated to be about 7 months old. Her teeth were scaled when she had her surgery and I am hoping the Dental formula will take care of the rest.
And the people at MaFF were correct, she loves humans! Super affectionate, gives many kisses. She has never made the slightest attempt to nip or bite me. She is now using the litter box in her cage and the newspapers in her playpen. Outside of these two environments it would appear to be more marking territory behavior rather than relieving herself because she spot pees. She always returns to her own cage after she’s played herself out and puts herself to bed in her hammock.
I let her out of her playpen when the others are down for their naps and she dooks and war dances all over the place. She’s young so she’s awake longer than the rest, although she’s classically diurnal - up at dawn, then again at dusk – sleeps soundly in-between.
She appears to have poor vision, even for a ferret. Although she already responds to her name, she can’t seem to locate me from my voice until I am almost on top of her.
At first I thought she was blind because she’d look all around trying to locate me when I called her. She gets startled if one of the others appears near her playpen. And if they move just a little distance she can’t seem to find where they’ve gone. She’s a climber and scales things even my most avid climber hasn’t been able to.
She loves the tube and the puff box but has not shown interest in any of the toys. She loves Ferretone and will eat anything I put in front of her, which is high quality Innova EVO Ferret, mixed with Sheppard & Green’s Dental formula for ferrets. I gave her an N-bone, which she carried around for a while, then left.
All in all, I am extremely happy to be able to provide a loving and caring forever home to this little Ohio rescue, my sweet Bellissima.
Black
Lab Creations - All Rights
Reserved.