When going to the ferret shelter to bring home a new ferret, not many people go in thinking "I want an old, sick ferret who will probably only live for a few months and need to go to the vet alot." Most people want younger ferrets, the babies or the under three crowd who move through the shelter quickly. Those young ferrets are a lot of fun, and a lot of work.

Every ferret shelter has quite a few older ferrets around somewhere, some in the shelter, some probably living in the director's home with their personal ferrets, others in the homes of volunteers and board members. Besides the one or two "shelter mascots" who live in the shelter proper, most visitors to the shelter don't see the really old or really sick ferrets that come in. Most of those wind up in homes like mine, as permanent foster ferrets, happy to live in a big cage, eat a lot of duck soup and get plenty of playtime, supportive care and regular trips to the vet to monitor their health in their old age.

In our years of having ferrets, we've had many foster ferrets. All of these ferrets came into our home when they were already at least 4 years old (and some as old as 8) and all had either recently lost friends, or had behavioral or health problems that were not easy to monitor and treat in the crowded ferret shelter, some we knew only had weeks to live due to cancer. Many had never been out of their cages before coming into the shelter we got them from, some had been part of abuse or neglect cases settled in court, others were simply depressed from losing their families. All of them had grabbed our hearts in some way. The bond with a foster ferret is very special. Many have not had much interaction with people in the past, so they might bite, or be nervous or just be really happy to have you shake a toy at them or give them a hug and a kiss. All of them need special care.

Some are like Oscar, who came into our home because he was unhappy around so many other ferrets in the shelter and bit to let everyone know how mad he was (turns out his aggression issues were from undiagnosed adrenal gland disease, he had a full coat of fur but a severely enlarged prostate, aggression and um, more than friendly interest in his toys). Plenty of playtime by himself, making friends with our cats and a bigger cage helped dramatically with his aggression. Oscar turned into a really loving ferret once he had adrenal surgery, although he continued to do a little "bull stomp" with one front foot when he didn't get his way. Oscar lived with us for two years through adrenal surgery, diagnosis with insulinoma and eventually he passed away very unexpectedly from liver cancer at over 7 years old. Oscar was Tommy's special ferret, they spent a lot of time together, playing, or just hanging out in the mornings or on days when Tommy worked from home. Oscar was a real people ferret and all the time we spent with him is cherished.

Others are very ill when they arrive, like Thelma and Louise. Louise had been diagnosed with osteosarcoma on her skull after they had been turned into FerretsR#1 shelter. We knew Louise had only weeks to live as the cancer was very aggressive and the shelter director was worried that Thelma would become very depressed when her lifelong friend passed. The girls had never been out of their cage before coming to the shelter and they loved to just wander around the house. We did away with their cage entirely and set up their litter pan, beds and food in our bedroom and gave them free roam of the entire house when our younger ferrets weren't out of the cage. After Louise passed, Thelma grew very attached to our younger cat, and spent plenty of time following him around the house or sleeping in our office. She was happy just to be in the room with you, or to hang out on the bed or the couch while you watched tv. Thelma passed away a year after we brought her home, after surgery to remove affected adrenal glands revealed lymphoma in her abdomen.

Jasper and Raleigh suffered from shelter shock when they were turned into FerretsFirst after spending a few months at a West Virginia animal shelter. They lost almost a pound each in about 2 weeks, stopped eating, drinking and we thought they might not make it. After coming home with us, we discovered that they both had insulinoma and one had an ailing liver. With plenty of soup, they both gained back their pound a piece plus some. They stayed with us until they both passed, and I like to think their final year or so was very happy.

Won't you consider becoming a foster ferret parent? Although their time with you may be short, they are so grateful for the chance to be regular ferrets.