shelter website: http://starburstferrets.embarqspace.com
Petfinder listing: www.petfinder.com/shelters/OH702.html
Hello everyone, I’m Mike Schott, and I run the Starburst Ferret Rescue, located in Bucyrus, Ohio.
Ferrets entered my life…probably 10 or 11 years ago, when a family member of mine would bring her ferret to spend the weekend with me while she worked. At that time I knew absolutely zero about and had never been around ferrets before. I really enjoyed “Jeepers” the ferret and having her bounce around the house. I soon decided that I would like to have a ferret of my own. That’s where my first ferret, an albino named “Frosty” came into my life….then a little bit of “ferret math” started in and “Smokie” and “Fern” joined us.
I learned quite a bit over the years with those three characters, as time went by we dealt with spaying, neutering, chordomas, insulinoma, adrenal and all of that not-so-fun stuff.
Eventually word got around town that we had ferrets and pretty soon a call came from our Humane Society…”Hey, we’ve got a couple of ferrets out here if you’re interested.” Then another from our local pet store…”Somebody dropped of a ferret they found wandering in their yard, do you want it?”
I knew there was a need for some type of help for ferrets here in my local area. I had tried contacting other ferret shelters to see what all was involved in being an animal rescue but couldn’t ever seem to get any replies. (They probably thought I was nuts!)
I took my thoughts, questions and concerns to my Vet, he answered my questions, got me into contact with some of the folks that deal with rescues here in the area, and in the end thought it would be good to have a ferret rescue here.
So nearly two years ago, we became, the Starburst Ferret Rescue! Always intending to stay a small, “in my house” type rescue, I’ve had as many as thirty ferrets here in the past and at this point in time there are nineteen “kids” here.
I think one of the biggest challenges about doing “rescue” is finding enough hours in the day to get everything done, the ferrets are always first and everything else will just have to wait ’till I get time!
All of the time and effort is worth it when you have a “little one” come in that’s “flat out”, no play, won’t eat…won’t (or can’t) do anything on their own. When you finally are finally able to help them get through their problems and they give you that first ferret kiss, or do their first “war dance”…that’s the part of helping ferrets that I love the most!
I’ve only been doing this for a short period of time compared to a lot of the shelters and rescues out there, some parts of it are very rewarding, others are very draining.
My hat’s off to all of the wonderful people out there that step forward to help the animals, not just ferrets, but ALL animals!