My sister had a ferret back in 1994 and that is how I got interested in them. My start in sheltering was actually an accident. Word got ‘around’ that I had them and people began contacting me with the usual, “I can’t keep it, do you want it?”.

We’ve had several special ferrets. Maxi Mil was carried into our house the Friday evening after Thanksgiving Day 2006. Her blood sugar level was only 28, so low she should have been dead. Her owners had ‘adopted’ her off of Craig’s List where she had been posted as a 4 year old. She was 8 1/2 if she was a day and her medical condition so severe the person giving her up, a volunteer for another ferret shelter, had to have known. In less than a week, she had already had three grand mall seizures and her screams had terrified her new owners. They had met me the year before when looking for information on a baby ferret they had purchased and after seeing where Max had been, it seemed logical to them when in the night and on a holiday, Max had ‘passed out’ and needed help, to bring her here.

I remember looking at her and knowing instantly her blood sugar had again plummeted, but for safety and curiosity about how low, I checked her levels. When it came back a measly 28 it is safe to say I freaked out, began grabbing needles and meds as fast as I could desperate to head off what I was sure then would be her last seizure.

Max’s blood sugar was a challenge to manage even for someone who’d had lots of practice, but we managed. She was a happy little girl, her favorite game mimicking a human baby playing with a blanket - she would crawl under my carpets, roll over on her back and play with the rug with all four feet, bouncing and rolling it. Even when she was weak and could only walk a foot or two, as soon as she’d had her soup, she made her way to the nearest rug to play.

In addition to her blood sugar problems, she had insulinoma, adrenal and cardiac problems. I would tell people she ‘had about everything a ferret gets’, but she never stopped being happy enough to play with her rugs.

Max was ferret aggressive, like a little old lady with her long dress, collar buttoned to her chin, parasol in hand. She had no use for newcomers, never mind she was the new person. Lori was my little Red Haired child, and despite their ages, Lori was only 6 or so, they developed a relationship. Lori was the only ferret Max would tolerate near her. They would pass each other in the hall, going opposite directions like two old ladies, one on either side of the boardwalk. You could just about see the “Good day”, “Good day”, the epitome of politeness and civility, and not one speck more. It must have been a ‘good breeding’ issue as oppose to those ‘others’ who weren’t quite up to snuff as far as Max was concerned.

The day I found them sleep under the same blanket, back to back of course, I almost fainted from shock - then I laughed and covered them back up. After that, it was not uncommon to find them together, but maintaining a ‘proper, respectful’ distance, of course, and only when asleep.

Lori left us several months ago and Max and the rest (everyone liked Lori) looked for her for several days. The others had shoulders they could lean on, or is that lie on? But not Max, Lori was all she had had. I felt so bad for her loosing her ‘old,dear, friend’.

Well, today Max decided to go sleep next to Lori again. Her blood sugar levels destabilized and despite everything I could do, and trust me I tried really hard to convince her otherwise, I could not get them back to a level sufficient to support any kind of a quality of life, so after reminding her to tell Lori and the rest of the People I loved and missed them, I let her go. Of course I buried her, back to back next to Lori.

There are challenges in sheltering. Money is always an issue, the biggest expense vet bills. There is a lack of volunteers and, surprisingly, a lack of qualified or quality adopters. Lots of people contact me wanting a ferret, but know absolutely nothing about them. Usually after about a 10 minute conversation, they have decided they have changed their minds - they simply didn’t realize how much care the little rascals need.

A line from one of my favorite TV shows: “I can save these People!” says it best about why I shelter.

If anyone would like to meet us, we will be at a local (Las Vegas) charity event, Pet-A-Palooza, April 12.

Recently my husband, Tom, reminded me that back in 2000, as my two almost-grown children were preparing to “leave the nest,” I said to him, “I think we should consider fostering a child.” It’s clear to me now there was room in my heart that has since been filled with weasel love!!

Circumstances (my daughter wanted one) led to my adoption of my first two ferrets, and I became hooked. The two had come from a shelter that was unable to provide the necessary level of care so important to these intelligent, interactive, inquisitive creatures; so I began volunteering. After six months of frustration and sadness that my efforts made very little difference, I opened up a room in my house and began a very small ferret-care operation. My intention was, and continues to be, to provide a clean, enriching, loving, happy environment for these furry unfortunates in need. In addition, it was my goal to ensure that no ferret would go without needed medical treatment or surgery.

My original group of 15 ferrets very quickly grew to 25, and it was obvious we needed a bigger space to accommodate everyone. In the first year, we expanded The Ferret Inn as Tom finished our basement solely to accommodate the ferrets. The spare room is now used for boarding.

Darwin’s story
I brought Darwin in from the Baltimore Animal Rights Coalition (BARC) on September 13, 2007. He had been dropped off by the mother of his owner, who had been incarcerated for 8 weeks. Unaware that her son had any pets, she had gone to his apartment to clean it out and discovered two very young ferrets that had been left unattended, for approximately 8 weeks, in a crate. There was no evidence of food or water having been provided. One of the babies had been surviving on the decomposing remains of his cage mate.
Darwin was about 4.5 months old when he came to The Ferret Inn; there was little hope of his surviving such neglect.

Yet, in the 2008 Winter Nationals in York, Pennsylvania, Darwin placed first in a ring of The Companion class of the ferret show. Bright and energetic, with a beautiful coat of lustrous fur, he was quite a handsome sight. From near death, to the winners circle, with lots of love, patience, and good food. This boy is THRIVING!!!

We are proud to report that since 2000, we have placed over 900 hundred ferrets, and in 2007 alone, have provided over 40 ferrets with adrenal and insulinoma surgeries. We are also grateful to be working with a licensed animal acupuncturist who does amazing ongoing work with many of our terminal kids - - those for whom surgery is not an option.

Due to a large influx of ferrets from the McKay rescue (from which we still have two), and surrenders at an all time high, we have had to double our capacity. Also, a majority of our unadoptable/permanent residents - - those having biting, social or health issues - - are becoming geriatric, and those that have come in as discards as elders are in need of surgery or costly ongoing medical treatment. The biggest continuing challenge for The Ferret Inn is financial/ fundraising. As our numbers have swelled to 65 plus, our expenses have grown as well.

For the past 7 years, with a handful of dedicated volunteers, and selfless contributions of time and donations, the shelter is no longer financed and maintained solely by Tom and I. and we now have achieved our non-profit 501 status.

As a shelter mom, wife and mother, the greatest challenge is finding balance. You notice I call myself a shelter mom first. I am still working on the balancing act! My biggest challenge, personally and in order to sleep well at night, is to know that I have done my absolute best in caring for, and finding the best home for, each of these deserving creatures. I am happy to say that I am sleeping well.

Nancy Wilson
Director, The Ferret Inn

We are a shelter; we adopt as many ferrets out that come to us. If they are in need of medical attention, they always receive it before being put up for adoption. If we receive a ferret in that is in poor health or very old and adoption is not in its best interest, we will either transport it to another shelter who is better equipped to deal with the medical needs or it will stay with us for the remainder of its life. Cagemates are never split up and are always adopted out together.

Ferrets entered my life when I met my fiancée. He had one ferret when I met him, Ruggie. Ruggie was a sweet albino boy and was the beginning of my journey of ferrets. The shelter is named after him. After becoming seriously involved with my fiancée, we started getting more ferrets and then decided we wanted to help those ferrets that needed it the most. I did not start working with ferrets too long ago. It will be four years in September that I have been introduced to ferrets and it has only been a year since we started in the shelter work. We started sheltering after we adopted two ferrets, and then two more, and two more and so on. I started working with another shelter. There were a few times where I would get the call or find out about a ferret needing to be surrendered. In the beginning, I would just transport them to the shelter I was working with and quickly learned that the area that I lived in was in need of a shelter for these sweet critters. So, I did my research and started to learn from the shelter that I was working with. I learned what it meant to run a shelter and what it would take. I am still learning and we still have a lot to do, but as time has been passing, we have been able to overcome a lot of the hurdles and have been working on ways to overcome the future hurdles.

Ash and Spike were the first shelter kids we took in. Both are boys around 4-5 years old. Ash’s name is perfect in describing his color. Spike is a black and white blaze. They came from a home that severely neglected them. They were filthy, malnourished, had fleas and a few medical needs. Both boys needed to learn what it meant to be a ferret. After bringing them home, these boys needed a lot of care. Ash had a deformed hind end and Spike had some really bad teeth. They both would try to hoard their food…..even their chicken soup, which was quite funny. They quickly learned that hoarding chicken soup didn’t work. We got them to the vet and found that TLC was the only thing these boys really needed. Within weeks, these boys were up to a healthy weight and were really starting to fit in. Ash’s hind end grew stronger, but he still walked with a waddle. Spike turned into one of the most beautiful boys. They both loved to play with the younger ferrets and also us. The shelter has had many calls on this pair but no one ever really showed interest in them past the first call. Sadly, Ash recently passed away from unknown problems, but Spike is still with us. Spike is still adjusting to life without Ash and only time will tell how he does.

I think the biggest challenge for me when it comes to sheltering is dealing with the families who are surrendering a ferret that has obviously been neglected. Keeping my cool and a professional standing is the hardest when all I really want to do is scream my head off at these people for how they have treated these sweet creatures. It’s even worse when they try to make it sound like they have given the ferrets the best care and that the ferret’s condition is unexplainable.

I think that the best parts of sheltering is when I go back to check up on an adopted ferret and see how good a home they have and how happy they are. Also another really good part of sheltering is seeing the differences that I make in their lives. Most of the ferrets that I have received haven’t had such a great life before coming to me. Seeing how much they appreciate a warm bed, good food, a place to play in and lots of love and attention is one of the best rewards.

Running a shelter can be very stressful and I won’t even get into the financial part of it. So many of the fur-kids that we have received have needed some sort of special attention. Quite a few have needed medical care and some have been so sick that the only thing we could do for them is make them comfortable. Being that a shelter sees so many sick and old, it really does get hard when you have so many of them passing. Sometimes it seems that you don’t even have time to grieve for one before you loose another. Some days I pray that my next surrendered ferret is a young, healthy one, just so that I can have the lively, happy spirit in my home for just a bit to kind of balance out all of the sadness of the older and sick ferrets that I care for.