Maryland Rescue Update:

WARNING! Graphic pictures of the rescue:

http://www.pooflinger.com/hagerstown/

Very, very sad. But now the ferrets are safe and in a healthy environment. These ferrets will need to be placed in homes (that is, adopted) after all the vet checks, vaccinations, and spaying/neutering. If you are interested, contact Barb Clay at rockysrescue@juno.com.

The address for donations (payable to "Rocky's Ferret Shelter") is:

Rocky's Ferret Shelter
PO Box 4040
Lutherville, Md 21094-4040

The other address is all right, too (the one in yesterday's post).

I want to thank Barb Clay and Kim (Rushing) Sikorski for going into this horrible place and taking the ferrets out of it. These two deserve a huge Thank You (and probably some post-trauma councelling). Thanks also to the Animal Control officer, Courtnay Sahaydak, for the rescue.

--Mary

FERRET RESCUE

This is a cross-post about a major East Coast ferret rescue.

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Date: Fri, 25 Jul 2003 20:31:53 -0700
From: Barbara Clay
Subject: WASHINGTON CO, MARYLAND BREEDER RESCUE

Dear All,
By all accounts, this season has been a rough one for all
shelters. I have worked closely for years with my sister shelters on
the East Coast, and I know first-hand that we all are currently working
to full capacity. However, Friday morning Kim Sikorski and I picked up
62 ferrets. 24 hrs earlier there were 76 ferrets, and the breeder is
being held accountable by Washington County Animal Control [in Maryland]
as to their whereabouts.

Thanks to Rob and Lynn Toole, we have the bedding to accommodate the
cages. We are very grateful for SOS for recognizing the urgent need and
donating directly to United to cover our CEP testing [for Aleutian's Disease Virus].
However, we need your help financially in supporting the distemper vaccinations,
rabies vaccinations, neutering and spaying, and all the possible medical
expenses that will come from this rescue. We have received ferrets
ranging in age from 4 months to 8 years, all intact and unsocialized.
They saw sunlight for the first time today, and they danced in their
carriers while waiting for us to load and transport. They have lived
their entire lives in an unventilated, windowless garage, with the
human contact being when they were fed and watered.

We can most certainly expect some very special elder kids in need of
surgery or supportive medical care for life. One little girl that looks
to be at least 8yrs and still intact, hair loss indicates adrenal, clung
to us from cage to carrier. She didn't want to let go. This is just one
of the special kids in this rescue. We are looking for special homes
for special kids.

This is a major rescue, and we need your help financially. The last
large breeder rescue on the East Coast that Kim and I coordinated
included 33 ferrets, at a cost of over $3,000.00, with a veterinarian
doing the surgeries at near cost. We need funds, pure and simple.
We will triage all these ferrets, first and foremost collecting and
sending in blood for the United CEP ADV tests, beginning the distemper
vaccinations, rabies vaccinations and have a vet examine and diagnose
each ferret.

62....SIXTY-TWO.....Can you help? If so please direct your donation to
rockysrescue@juno.com, or send a donation, made payable to Rocky's:

Barb Clay (Rocky's Rescue)
832C Falls Rd.
Parkton, Md. 21120

We are a pro-adoption shelter....no matter what their need, we know
there is a family capable of loving them through it. Once triaged, we
will accept the outreach from our sister shelters that has already been
offered, and certainly consider any other offers of help to make this
horrible situation the best for the ferrets that are tonight finally
safe and comfortable here at Rocky's.

Thank you,
Barb Clay
Dir of Shelter Affairs Rocky's Ferret Rescue and
Shelter, Inc.

---

If you can offer any kind of help, please contact Barb or send a donation.

--Mary & the Fuzzies

I love coffee in the morning. I've been drinking coffee since I was in high school -- every morning. It's fair to say I'm addicted (certainly if I miss my morning coffee I get a headache). But what a pleasant addiction! Less destructive than others anyway.

Nothing special to note. Eric and I have been discussing alternative ways to deliver our e-newsletter. Spam filters and paranoia make it difficult to get people to read the newsletter (even though they sign up for it and confirm signing up for it). So we might just put it up on the web site and e-mail people that a new newsletter is available for reading. Another alternative is putting the newsletter in a pdf and letting people download it and print it out (if they want). If you have any opinions on this, let me know.

That's about it for today. -- Mary

New Blogger

This is my first post since they've upgraded Blogger. I hope it goes through all right.

Bike Riding

Yesterday we rode our bikes from here to Bethpage State Park -- it was a long ride, hilly, and great fun. I had forgotten the thrill of flying down a hill on a bicycle! The path is through woods, so it's shady and fragrant. Very enjoyable and quite different from the ride down to Jones Beach. The Jones Beach ride is all along Wantagh Parkway and in the sun. On the way there, you go against a lot of wind. But it is a nice ride, too. The problem with the Jones Beach ride is the bridges. The bike/rollerblade/walking bridges are added onto the car bridges as an afterthought and they are very narrow. The first two aren't terrible, but the third is awful and long. Even so, it's a nice bike ride. I'm really enjoying the bike riding thing. It's very freeing.

Gabby's Vaccine Reaction

About a week or so ago the ferrets got some vaccinations (Gabby and Trixie got their distemper shots and Koosh got his rabies shot). Gabby had a reaction, even though she was pretreated -- and it was the new Merial vaccine. This was her second time getting the Merial vaccine (you rarely see vaccine reactions the first time out). Her little nose turned bright red and she became lethargic and limp. She's all right now. A shot of epinephrine and some fluids brought her around. But she had hind-end weakness for a few days afterwards. Now comes the big question: What will we do next year? There's pretty much a guarantee that she'll have a reaction, so I don't know that we can give her any more vaccinations. I have to hope that she's gotten enough immunity from the shots she's already had. Poor little fluff ball.

Writing

I'm supposed to be writing, but I haven't been. That's why I figured if I started by doing a blog entry, I could kick-start myself. There's a lot I need to be writing, but I'm just not doing it. Some things are just too stressful right now. But that'll end soon enough and I should be in a better position to move forward.

Ok, let's see how this new Blogger version works ... --Mary