I am an experienced ferret owner whose latest furbaby has passed on at the ripe age of 7 (he was disabled at 5 months old).

I'm comfortable with disabled and special needs ferts. My ferret was partially paralyzed after a distressing bout with a wasting disease as a pup. He was syringe fed, watered, and bathroom assisted for four months by myself. Thereafter, he struggled with gastric and mobility issues his entire life. I've wiped a lot of fuzzybutt and made a lot of duck soup! Heh.

In his honor, I would like to make my home available for short term emergency pet sitting or vacation sitting for donations to a local shelter like Washington Ferret Rescue.

I think I would be a unique resource because I

- work from home (available 24/7), can spend upwards of 4+ hours per day with animals
- have experience with disabled and special needs animals and giving complicated medications
- have an emergency QT cage for short term housing
- already occasionally ferret sit for a few friends (who don't leave town enough)
- OK with sitting commitments as long as 2-3 weeks (or negotiable)
- perfectly fine with 2-4 ferrets at a go
- variety of experience with ferret behavior and training
- I can assist in potty training ferrets (age is unimportant, mobility matters)

This is not a business for me, so I'm not interested in becoming bonded or offering professional services.

I'm like your young Aunty Ferret Spoiler who loves company, particularly the fuzzy kind.

If you have suggestions of how I could help, who I might be able to talk with to make my availability known, or if you think I'm bonkers and can forsee problems with this... please feel free to leave a message or send an email. maus@llarian.net * My friends with ferrets would be happy to provide references.

Why not adopt? I'm simply uninterested in taking on the long term commitments of another ferret (I'd spent over $6K in emergency vet services for my one special child, and that's dedication).

I would like to foster or petsit.

Thanks for reading!

Lisa C
Fuzzy Lover to the Core

Hi Lisa!

I'm sure Kevin will check this board soon. He is the shelter director, and when he receives inquiries for ferret sitting, he can pass some of those along to you. I'm also sure that some people visiting this board will make a note of your interest (including me)

Thanks!
Leanna



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Thanks Leanna!

Greetings!
That sounds like an awesome offer of help.

A few things to find out:
What area are you located in? (I'm assuming that you're somewhere in the area, but it's nice to know where someone would need to go to drop off their fuzzies)

You also sound like you might be a good candidate for our foster program.
In this program, you agree to care for one or more ferrets that have some special need.
Many are adrenal, some have other medical issues that make them not easily adoptable.

The shelter retains legal ownership of the ferret, and also retains responsibility for all medical costs. (although donations help!)

As you can guess, given that these are ferrets with special needs, we do screen carefully but your experience sounds like a good match.

Probably the best next step in either case would be to send mail to washingtonferret@yahoo.com and we'll take it from there.

Kevin