Teach Your Cat To Use The Litter Box Easily -- a Guest Post by Earlene Krause

Often, ferret owners have other pets besides ferrets. This month, our friend Earlene Krause has written some information about house training your kitten. Since we can always use more information about our fuzzy companions (either ferret or non-ferret), here is Earlene's article.

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Teach Your Cat To Use The Litter Box Easily

It might seem very difficult to try to teach a pet without even knowing to speak its language, but more often, body language, gestures tells a lot more than words. Teaching your kitten to use the litter box will take time just like it took with your kid. The steps to be followed are almost similar and it is also a way to build trust between you and your pet. It does not take much of your time either, unless you are completely unaware of handling your kitten.

Know Their Habits

Try to know the pattern of her soiling and eliminating so that you know exactly when to carry her to the litter box. In the first weeks you need to manually carry her over to the litter box and introduce it to her and explain the proper usage. Once she or he begins to like it, she will know and remember to use it.

● Try to maintain a time table and feed her at regular intervals. Cats are supposed to eliminate shortly after they eat. Once you keep the inputs regular, you can easily follow the pattern of the outputs.
● Apart from short intervals after their meals, they also eliminate after they are awake from a long sleep like two hours, or after little exercise or after a play session. You need to be with her during these times in order to understand her habits. Introduction To Litter Box When you are aware of her timings or you find her inclining towards soiling somewhere else, quickly carry her to the litter box and put her inside it, let her finish with her job. Now, it is the most important time to reward the cat.
● You need to praise her and show that you are very pleased with her behavior. Gently pad her, cuddle her and make her feel very special for doing it in the box.
● Next, try calling her to the litter box instead of carrying her to it instantly like you did before. She should understand that she should not be eliminating anywhere else but the box. Especially, try to always call her from those places where she has soiled previously.

No Surprises

Cats might stop using the box because of nervousness introduced from new cats in the house, new people or children on a vacation, you're moving out of the house on a vacation or simply buying a new furniture that comes along the old road to her box. Any of these surprises might make her insecure and fell in an unwanted territory. These are some of the things you need to take care.
Take time to make her believe that the litter box is a neat and clean place and the best place in the whole house for his business. Most of the times cats refuse to use it just because they feel it isn't neat enough, just like most human beings. Everything happens gradually, so don't be impatient and discipline her always.

The Oregon Ferret Shelter needs you to help fight City Hall

The Oregon Ferret Shelter is in serious trouble. Clackamas County is trying to rezone the land that the shelter sits on. It seems that some developer want to make a huge subdivision up the street from the shelter on Holly Lane. They also want to widen Holly Lane to four lanes so that they can make this historically rural area into a highway with accompanying mini-malls, frozen yogurt stores and tanning booths. Right now, the shelter's neighbors include several ranches and homes with several acres. Where we see a place to help homeless animals, some developer -- and his rich friends -- see a way to make money by squeezing out people who can't give them millions of dollars. Real classy, Clackamas County.

Fortunately, this is not California, where people like these city planners can eminent domain whatever land they want and sell it to the highest bidder. Clackamas County is going through through a process where they deem our shelter as "not adding significant value to the community" to justify its rezoning and possible closing down of our shelter.

The County's plan is attempting to rezone our shelter to a "local business" instead of what it is (and has been since 1985) -- animal husbandry. In doing so, the County hopes to levy $4500 in fees, charge a $1500 business license (good for three years), and set a whole new standard of operations for the shelter. Tens of thousands of dollars would have to be spent to make this rural homestead into a proper business that is governed by the same laws as Intel or Microsoft. New parking lots, building codes, even new bathrooms would need to be made to specifications. It is ridiculous to expect a nonprofit that runs on a shoestring budget and takes no federal or state aid to adhere to the same rules as a for-profit entity, especially since the shelter has been in operation for 28 years this way. All of that money needs to go to feeding and giving medical care to the ferrets, not to pad some bureaucrat's fat wallet.

Just to prove that this is all about money and not at all about making the County a better place, Michael McAllister said this: If you want to remain animal husbandry, all you have to do is skin your ferrets and you'll fall under the category of a fur farm. Problem solved.

WE DO NOT KILL AND SKIN PETS! And it is SICK SICK SICK of you to ask us to do so in order to meet your new standards.

That was the last straw. We have hired a lawyer, but we also need to ask you, our fans, to help us interrupt this process.

If you would be so kind as to copy and paste the letter below and mail it off to the following people, you can help us in our fight to keep our shelter going. Bless you for helping the ferrets!

Note: Also, if you could add your own story to the end of the letter, that would make it more personal and helpful. And if you could send a copy to our shelter so we can keep track of all this good will, please send it to: Oregon Ferret Shelter, 17560 S Holly Lane, Oregon City, OR 97045. Thank you for your efforts. We know it's asking a lot. But we really need this help.

The two addresses to send this letter are:

Michael McAllister, Clackamas County planning Director
Development Service Building
150 Beavercreek Road
Oregon City, OR 97045

and

Rhett Tatum, Clackamas County Assistant County counsel
Public Services Building
2051 Kaen Road
Oregon City, OR 97045
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May 7, 2013

Dear Sirs:

It has come to our attention that you are not allowing farming zoning rights to continue for the Oregon Ferret Shelter after 28 years of being in operation. You propose that what the OFS does falls under the category of "Business" instead of "Animal husbandry", and you are asking us to completely redefine our practices and pay a significant amount into your coffers for this privilege. In addition, you accuse the shelter of not adding to the culture of Clackamas County and therefore not being worthy of saving.

Animal husbandry is described as the caring for animals from beginning until end. The shelter doesn't practice breeding shelter ferrets as a means of financial gain, but it does care for sick ferrets and relocate them into new homes. The shelter takes in more than 350 ferrets per year, and we find forever homes for approximately 250 ferrets. We are a no-kill shelter; no ferret is ever turned away for lack of room or euthanized.

The Oregon Ferret Shelter works with many different demographics, providing various services to help the people of Clackamas County. Shelter volunteers visit local schools to educate the kids on the joys and responsibilities of owning and caring for a domestic pet. We teach and use volunteers to do "outreaches" in local events and pet stores to educate the public on what is required to properly own and care for ferrets, which helps to cut back on pet impulse buying (a problem that occurs in every area that allows pet stores to sell live animals). The shelter regularly works with juvenile and adult offenders through various programs, giving them a safe environment to do their community service. In addition, the shelter most recently worked with Lewis & Clark College for students to perform a day of service for their "Spring Into Action" program. All of these steps help to keep the number of unwanted, abandoned, or dumped ferrets down and the number of involved community members up.

Not only does the OFS teach children and help ferrets, but it also helps the elderly and disabled in the Clackamas County community. Many retired and disabled persons take unadoptable ferrets into foster care, giving these people a vital purpose while helping out a ferret that may otherwise be euthanized.

The Oregon Ferret Shelter is also a very necessary part of your community for this reason: The Oregon Humane Society doesn't keep ferrets at their shelters -- they rely on the OFS to handle unwanted ferrets. Most local animal control facilities in this area do the same. The Oregon Ferret Shelter is one of the largest ferret shelters in the United States, and this shelter is known worldwide for the good that it does. Its fame brings your county worldwide recognition. This alone is a very good reason for your reconsideration in this matter.

It is our understanding that you have refused to let the shelter continue to operate "as is" under a grandfather clause. We are pleading for your reconsideration in this situation. No harm is being done, only good!

Sincerely,

It ain't all frickin roses...

I got a complaint on my Facebook account that one of our posts was not done to a reader's liking. She referred to the Robin Williams post and was horrified that I had dared to insult him for saying this:

He told Empire magazine: "The ferret is the most annoying animal. I'm probably going to get hate mail from angry ferret owners now, 'How dare you insult the ferret! It's basically a loveable weasel.' "There's a show in America where all these people compete with ferrets and they don't even do anything. They basically hold them up and if they don't bite you might win."

I think her anger comes from a basic misunderstanding of what we in the animal rescue world have to endure every day. She, along with many other people, has this idea that animal rescue is all fun and games, that we just get up every day and sing while petting all the ferrets in turn, maybe gleefully chucking around a little food (like feeding chickens), and playing games until the sun goes down, when we sing lullabyes to our charges and tiptoe out while they sleep soundly.

She doesn't realize that every day is a battle. Every. Single. Day.

* Will we have enough food for this month?
* Will the donations come through or do we have to dip into our retirement fund again?
* Will we be able to pay our mortgage?
* Do we have enough money to get surgery for this poor guy who has a giant bloody tumor on his neck?
* Some celebrity just said that ferrets kill people. How many calls are we going to have to field and tell people ferrets don't do that? How many people will just drop off their ferrets anyway, sometimes just driving up and chucking them into our front yard?
* Do we have enough gas to go pick up the ferrets that someone left in a field/in an abandoned apartment/in a parking lot? Will we get there before someone or something kills them?
* Can we get to the Humane Society/local animal control/other animal rescue to pick up those found ferrets before they put them to sleep? For example, the local Humane Society won't take care of ferrets. Instead they give them to us -- as long as we can get out there and get them before someone decides they are too much trouble to hang on to, even for a few hours.

These are just some of the questions we have had to answer over the years. Animal rescue is just that -- rescue. It is dangerous, hard work that is 24/7 with no breaks. It takes every dollar it can find, and it never pays salaries (at least our shelter cannot afford to pay -- we are an all-volunteer outfit). The burnout rate for animal rescue is even higher than that for cops and nurses. And there are always cases we can't save, we don't get to in time, or simply don't have the equipment for, and these cases haunt us every day and give us enormous guilt.

So yeah, we get cheesed off when a celebrity makes our lives that much harder. And we may, on occasion, tell the world how it impacts us. We may even get angry and write a letter saying how angry we are.

But as hard as it may be for a reader to read those words, at least those readers don't have to live with these horrible situations every single day. But we do. And we don't do it to make other people happy or to get kudos. We do it because of the ferrets. They are innocent victims of stupid human politics, of greed, of misinformation, of lies, and of senseless horrific cruelty. We do it to tip the scales a little bit in the other direction.

So, if you don't like the opinions expressed here, don't read it. These words are not for the weak. They are for my fellow animal rescue warriors, the ones who selflessly put in their time to help make the ferrets' world a better place. And if you can't help us, even just by telling other people that we exist and are here to help ferrets, then go find something else to read.

Coming up: Northwest Pet & Companion Fair

This Saturday, May 5th, and Sunday, May 6th, will be the place to be this weekend when the Oregon Ferret Shelter brings its volunteers and its ferrets to spread the good word about weasels! Since its redesign, the fair's looks have much improved. It's now much bigger, and hopefully it will be much more successful. I look forward to seeing all of the animal booths -- especially ours, since I won't be one of the volunteers there this year. Why? I have my own Petco gig on Sunday at Petco on NE Glisan and 66th in Portland. And next week, I have the Parkways gig. http://www.portlandonline.com/transportation/index.cfm?c=46103 I have never done the Parkways thing before. It looks huge, which is kind of scary. On the other hand, this could be a big break for us. We got contacted about Parkways from a ferret-owning representative who saw our page on Facebook. I was kind of blown away -- so many times, I feel like I am writing stuff that never gets seen. It makes me happy when we get some good feedback on our stuff. Awesome! So, hope to see you at the Expo this weekend and at Parkways next weekend. Woohoo!

The British Navy loves ferrets!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Ferret

"Fifteen ships and two shore establishments of the Royal Navy have borne the name HMS Ferret, after the domestic mammal, the Ferret"

And then there is this huge list!

This happy piece of news really cheered me up. I hope it cheers you too. We adore our ferret-loving friends from across the sea!

ThinkGeek is great for Xmas gifts!

ThinkGeek is a great site hosted by great people. If you have a smart and curious loved one to buy for, you should look here first. And yes, ferrets love the stuff that these guys sell. Seriously, I have a bunch of their stuff under my bed because of Tekkie, the technology-loving ferret. When I get stuff in, she takes it the first chance she gets unless we put it on top of the bookshelf. And even then, it's risky because the ThinkGeek goodies are JUST THAT AWESOME!

As you can see in the screen capture above, some of the people who shop at ThinkGeek also own ferrets. (Surprisingly, the Zombie-based pic above is not mine. We mostly buy Star Trek and Star Wars stuff, with a sprinkle of Doctor Who and random geek items in the mix.) The screen capture is an action shot of the Dismember-me Plush Zombie. If you want to get a Dismember-me Zombie of your own, you can find the zombie at http://www.thinkgeek.com/geektoys/plush/ac4a/?srp=1. The above ferret-filled page can be seen at: http://www.thinkgeek.com/geektoys/plush/ac4a/action/215aa9f/

Why do we love ThinkGeek so much? And why are we mentioning it on an Oregon Ferret Shelter blog? What do they have to do with us?

Well, a few years ago, a very nice representative of ThinkGeek, Shane Peterman, donated five shirts to our Weasels Dancing in the Park fundraiser. We haven't forgotten his kindness.



In appreciation for his donation, every chance we get, we recommend ThinkGeek to everyone we know. We hope to return his kindness a thousandfold.

One of ThinkGeek's donations was the Princess Bride shirt pictured here, with the name tag, "Hello my name is Inigo Montoya..."

You can still buy this shirt at ThinkGeek. It is awesome -- I still wear mine all the time. http://www.thinkgeek.com/tshirts-apparel/unisex/popculture/9f70/?srp=1

And I know this article is messy with all the links. But I thought that people would probably like to know where they were being redirected to (ya can't be too careful!).

So, happy shopping!

Artist Deva Kolb and the Gigantic Xmas Bag!

Deva Kolb, ferret-centric artist and fellow shelter supporter, has alerted everyone on the Ferret Mailing List to the presence of a particularly attractive gift bag, available on eBay.
Take a look at the collection of winsome weasel wonders!
http://www.ebay.com/itm/230702314915
Yep, it's got everything you need to explore your ferret side, including a 13-inch musical dancing ferret that sings Jingle Bell Rock until your ears bleed. But the best part? She also filled this bag with all sorts of her original artwork: a laminated poster of the Ferret Celtic Tree of Life, a Three Ferret Teapots poster with accompanying poem (also laminated), and best of all -- a 2012 Ferret clip art CD with over 250 high resolution drawings made by Deva herself! Anyone who has tried to find ferret artwork knows what an incredible hassle it is to find anything suitable. This is truly a gem!
Go forth and bid now! The profits from this bag go to benefit a ferret shelter. And if you give the contents of the bag to another ferret shelter, then you've helped a MULTITUDE of carpet sharks! Think of the karma!
(Santa Hat ferret is from last year's clip art CD. Thanks go to Deva for the use of her artwork!)

Shelters Fill Up Fast When "Animal People" Meet "Non-Animal People"

I remember going over to my friend's new house. She had just moved in with her new boyfriend and her 16-year-old cat, who was left over from her previous relationship that had ended in divorce. My friend, L___, and her cat, Miranda, had lived through a lot together over the years, and Miranda was a great source of comfort to L___ as she endured her heartbreaking situation.

I was excited to see L___ with her new boyfriend, J___. I had been told he "wasn't much of a cat person", but as long as she was happy, I was thrilled for her.

When I arrived, Miranda was at the door. Of course I let her in with me. I was surprised that she was outside at all. They were in a new neighborhood, and you don't put a 16-year-old cat outside in an unfamiliar place. At their age and fitness level, they just don't have the knowledge or skill to find shelter or safety from hazards like dogs or cars. I know L___ knew that -- when she moved to her apartment after the divorce, she called to ask me about the "butter on the feet" trick of introducing a cat to a new place. I figured Miranda must have somehow sneaked out when nobody was looking, like she always tried to do when I cat-sat for her.

Miranda galloped over to the couch and waited for me to sit. She swiftly jumped up on my lap, and I petted her soft silky fur as I had done a million times before. She was so affectionate, sweet, and smart, really a one-in-a-million kind of cat.

Suddenly, I heard J___'s voice: "Is that damn cat inside again?"

I looked at Miranda, and I saw the fear and sadness in her eyes. With some surprise, I said, "Yes. She's just on the couch with me, saying hello."

"Oh! I didn't know you were here already." J___ came out from the kitchen, along with my friend.

"We don't allow her inside during dinner anymore," said L___. "J___ doesn't like her on the counter. He says it's not sanitary." I looked around and realized that there was no food in sight. Dinner was at least an hour away. It was a very creepy moment.

"Oh," I said. "Well, I'll put her out in a little bit, when we're ready to eat, OK?" I could see very well that J___ did NOT think that was OK, but he felt like he couldn't deny me, a guest in his home -- at least not in front of L___.

"That's fine." Back into the kitchen he went, with L___a following soon thereafter.

I looked over at Miranda, and I remember this very piercing moment when I realized that my friend was more than willing to sacrifice her companion of 16 years to placate this new man in her life. I looked into Miranda's eyes, and I said, "It looks like there's no room for you here anymore. I wonder when they are going to run out of room for me too."

Less than a month later, Miranda had been hit and killed by a car. I remember my friend crying hysterically on the phone. I asked her if I could come over, that I knew how horrible it is to lose a pet, and that I wanted to help her. And she answered, "No, J___ has everything taken care of. I'm fine."

Indeed, J___ did have everything taken care of. Just the way he wanted it.

At the shelter, we hear stories about J___s everywhere. How people happily have their ferrets, then they suddenly meet someone who "just isn't a ferret person." Then the ferrets show up at the OFS. Sometimes they are starved. Sometimes they are crippled. Usually they have major trust and abandonment issues. Sometimes one or more of them have met with "unfortunate accidents" and the loving owner is just trying to save the rest. Maybe they think the worst is over when the “animal problem” is gone. Unfortunately for the people in these relationships, usually the abuse has just begun.

People like J___ may or may not stop their abusive and controlling ways after the animals are gone. Sometimes the L___s of the world have to experience their spouse's anger firsthand to know what a terrible danger they live with.

I'm not saying that everyone who doesn't like animals is abusive or a bad person. But if you have animals, and your boyfriend or girlfriend treats them poorly, you should let that be a warning to you not to get more involved with them or, at the very least, never to become dependent upon them.

By the way, my friendship with L___ has come to an end. They married this year, and even though she makes pleasant noises at me in emails, I know that J___ will always be in the background -- disapproving of my animal-rescuing ways, ready to turn L___ against yet another part of her support system. And that's OK. The first thing you learn in the animal rescue field is that, heartbreaking as it is, you can't save everyone.

I joined Fab.com and found the pEi Pod

So I joined Fab.com. They have lots of gorgeous modern furniture and stuff that has crazy funky designs. I read it because I never know what will inspire me to do good art for the ferrets.

So what do I see today? The PRECIOUS PRECIOUS egg pet bed! They are adorable! They come in various colors and animals seem to love them.

What's the catch? The price. They retail for $129. Fab.com has them on sale for $79. But even at that significantly discounted price, I still can't justify buying one. I just think of all the homeless furry faces and how that $129 can buy more than a week's worth of food for the almost 200 ferrets at the Oregon Ferret Shelter.

So, no pEi Pod (the cool name for the egg-shaped bed) for my furkids. But I hope whoever gets one is happy with their purchase. Here is the link for their products http://www.peipod.com. Enjoy!

Oh, and here is the link for our donations (in case I guilted you just enough to give a few bucks): http://www.oregonferretshelter.org/donations.htm

Halloween Costume Contest Fun!

Aperture Science: We do what we must because we can

And what we can do is make a Companion Cube costume for our ferret!

Our little girl, Millie, may have cataracts and be blind, and she also may have no tail (it had a chordoma and had to be removed), but she makes an excellent companion. And how better to showcase her companion-y talents than to make her a Companion Cube to cuddle in.

Millie thoroughly enjoyed her turn at the Oregon Ferret Shelter's annual Costume Contest. Even though she didn't win or place, she still had a wonderful time in her custom-made snuggler.

While every other ferret fought to get out of their costume (no matter how adorable they looked!), Millie curled right up in hers and fell asleep. In fact, she had to be woken up a total of four times for the judging. Apparently, I made it TOO comfortable.

More pictures of the event, including pictures of the ferrets who actually won the event, will be up on our website soon after I resolve some technical difficulties. I found out that Slide.com will be closing down, and I have to find another place for our photo slideshows to be hosted. It's always somethin', eh?

In the meantime, Happy Halloween!

Triple F Farms and PETA -- someone has to help

I watched this video earlier today. PETA went undercover to expose the conditions at Triple F Farms, a well-known ferret breeder. I am still reeling from watching their video.

http://www.peta.org/features/investigation-exposes-cruelty-at-ferret-mill.aspx

Be warned -- the video contains graphic horrible pictures.

I was talking with my husband. I was very upset. Seeing these things reached deep into my heart. I felt very angry and helpless.

And I asked him, "People, the bastards, are going to do these gruesome terrible things. They do them even when it doesn't gain them anything to do so. They even lose money when they perpetuate these cruelties, and they STILL do them. What can one person do to stop them?"

He said that I could post it to my blog, that maybe someone would read it and write the CDC (like the link on PETA's page asks them to do). Or maybe someone would put some words in the right ear and bring the whole operation under inspection. Who knows -- maybe someone with power will help.

So if you are that person, or you know someone who could be that person, go to it! Or tell me who to talk to. Because someone has to help.

Oregon Ferret Shelter celebrates 26 years of service

On Saturday, May 14th, the Oregon Ferret Shelter celebrated its 26th year as a shelter for homeless and abandoned ferrets. Many volunteers and fans of ferrets showed up to show their appreciation for this Oregon City, OR, community resource.

To commemorate their years of service, a lovely cake was presented to Dave and Chris Mathis, the owners and operators of the shelter. Stephanie Whiteside and her family donated the cake as a token of their gratitude. Stephanie's ferret, Dookie, was also happy to put his paw of approval to the donation.

About 50 pounds of food was donated as "birthday presents" for the shelter inhabitants. This is about half of what the shelter needs for a full week of feeding the resident animals; typically, the shelter uses 90 pounds of food per week. Several types of ferret food were donated, including the shelter favorites of Totally Ferret and Zupreem.

Stephanie Whiteside and her family also brought a great present for all attending ferrets: tiny party hats! Each ferret was given a paper cone hat with a little piece of elastic to wear. Although few ferrets wanted to keep theirs on for pictures, there were some fuzzy kids who managed to get their photos taken. Many thanks go to the Whitesides for their wonderful sense of humor and their generosity. (A small note here: Never let your ferret play unsupervised with elastic or anything that is easily swallowed and not easily digested.)

Chris Mathis was deeply moved by the donations and seemed overwhelmed with gratitude. She would like to thank each and every person who came out to help the shelter celebrate their years of community service. She also extends an invitation to all people who love ferrets to come to the shelter's meetings, which are open to the public and are held on the second Saturday of each month. To see when the next meeting is scheduled, please go to the Oregon Ferret Shelter's website at:

http://www.oregonferretshelter.org/news.htm

Chris would also like to mention that this upcoming weekend, the Oregon Ferret Shelter will be at the Beaverton Farmer's Market for their Animal Welfare Day. The booth will be open from 9:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. For further information, please go to the following link for the Beaverton Farmer's Market.

http://www.beavertonfarmersmarket.com/newsletters/BFMmay2/newsletter.html

Post with your name or at least a nickname

If you want to post, use a name or a nickname. I hate all of you pissy whiny jerks who post nasty anti-ferret notes anonymously. You can all die in a gigantic bonfire. If you don't have the guts to back up your comments, then go slink off into your pile of offal and stink up some other place.

Seriously, why do I even have to tell people that they have to be nice on this board? Do people really have nothing better to do than anonymously post on a pro-ferret board? Really. If I ever find out who did that, there will be some hell to pay.

Oh, and if you have a problem with this and call it "censorship", I would like to remind you to FUCK OFF. Yes, this isn't a public forum. You don't have "the right to be anti-ferret" or whatever stupid rhetoric the animal abusers are using as an excuse nowadays. This is a place for people who love ferrets to talk about their pets. So go somewhere else.

Elvis: My New Ferret Friend

When you are fostering a new ferret, you get to meet someone entirely new, someone who looks at your house in an entirely new way. And so it is with Elvis, our newest foster guy.

Elvis has been here recuperating from his tumor removal surgery for a little more than a week.

Today, I let him out by himself. He tootled around the house a bit, looking at all the places where the other ferrets store their toys and treats. Then he came over to me.

He very carefully crawled up on the couch next to me. Then he sniffed around my ear, and started licking it! Then he eagerly started licking my face!

I was so shocked and pleased that I started giggling. And, of course, when you get the Giggles, it's hard to stop. But Elvis seemed to like that.

Next, he surfed down the blanket onto the floor, where he turned on his back and looked up at me. It seemed to be a cue for something. I tried tickling his belly -- no, that wasn't it. I thought, "He remembers that he used to do something with his human, and he expects me to do it too. I wish I knew what it was."

That is some of the saddest part of adopting older ferrets (Elvis is 4): seeing the pieces of their previous life that they bring to you. I wish that when people dropped off their ferrets, they would give a list of what their favorite things are, their tricks, their moods, and their favorite toys. That way, we wouldn't have to guess what the ferret wants when he looks up so eagerly at us. We would know.

Axe Shampoo: Animal Lovers or Axe-holes?

In the fall of 2010, an Axe Shampoo commercial appeared on local network television. It did not show ferrets in a very good light.
The commercial shows a man next to a woman at a gym, working out on treadmills and flirting a bit. Then another man turns on a fan, which starts blowing on the couple.
Dirt and grime starts to fly out of the man’s hair. The grime hits various patrons of the gym at high velocities.
Suddenly, a fake ferret detaches from the guy’s hair and flies across the room to hit a weightlifter in the crotch. Then the shot changes to the floor, where a young ferret (it looks like almost a baby ferret -- it still has that soft baby fur) is walking on the floor.
Next, you see the guy shampooing with Axe Shampoo. Then, in the sauna (Who goes in the sauna AFTER you shampoo and shower? You'd just get sweaty and stinky again. Dumbasses.), the woman is rubbing his hair in a sensual way. You hear: “Lose the grime. Get touchably clean hair with Axe Shampoo and get some hair action.”
From this, we are supposed to surmise: Ferrets are stinky animals that smell like sweaty man-crotches, having this smell is like throwing dirt in strangers’ faces, and covering up ferret smell with Axe will get you laid. Oh, and throwing baby animals is funny and safe.
Axe’s parent company, Unilever, says that they are “committed to the elimination of animal testing.” They want us to believe they care about animals.
What do you think? Do you think they love animals? Let Unilever know how you feel about this anti-ferret message by contacting them at: http://www.unilever.com/resource/Contactform/?WT.LHNAV=Contact_form.

Someone called the ASPCA

So someone read my blog, but they didn't post to it or let me know what they were thinking. They felt compassion and righteous anger over the plight of shelter animals. They turned that feeling into action, which is a good impulse. But they didn't do the right good thing. Instead, they called the ASPCA and reported Chris Mathis, the shelter owner.
So the ASPCA came out and looked over the ferrets. And they gave the OK. Because, of course, all of the ferrets are well cared for, get regular exercise, have food and water, and clean bedding, and their litter boxes are cleaned regularly. No ferret ever goes hungry here, or has less-than-adequate housing. Ever.
The only thing they need? HOMES! Yes, HOMES! Loving caring homes where they can be held and cherished every day by someone bonded to them. That is the one thing we cannot provide -- the sense that they are a beloved part of a family. That's where you come in.
Seriously. If you want to help, don't call the authorities. Chris deals with them all the time. She knows all the people, and believe me, if there was ANYTHING bad going on at the shelter, they would come down on her like a frickin' hammer. LIKE A HAMMER!
Oregon has some very smart and dedicated animal control workers, and they work very hard to make animals safe here in Oregon. Chris is one of the good ones. That's why I am so very proud to be one of her volunteers.
Chris has a small but very loyal core of volunteers to help her. If you want to help those ferrets, call her at 503-557-8369 and join us. You can help in dozens of ways. You can help clean cages. You can trim fingernails. You can write an article for the newsletter about how much you love your ferret -- and send a picture of your ferret in too! You can make a ferret-based craft to sell at our Weasels Dancing in the Park auction. You can sew sleepy sacks or hammocks.
You can always get us stuff for the ferrets. You can go buy wood pellets at CBI feed in Redland. They are located at 17141 S Redland Rd. Their phone number is 503-925-8903. We can always use food that we purchase wholesale at West Coast Seed, 503-657-3473 (Zupreem Ferret Diet). We can use any type of ferret diet and even Costco's Maintenance Cat Food in the dark purple bag. Any ferret food is good -- we never know what a ferret will be eating when they come in, and it takes time to switch their diet over to the nutritious stuff.
There are probably a thousand other ideas I am just not thinking of at the moment, but maybe you can think of them and tell us in a response to this post.
Please, come be a part of this noble endeavor. Help us to help ferrets. Call Chris at 503-557-8369. If you want to make a REAL difference, call our number and don't call the ASPCA.
And if you REALLY REALLY want to help, come adopt a few of these guys. The best thing for them would be to get adopted. Read our materials, read "Ferrets for Dummies", read other books and stuff online about ferrets, then come and get a few. Ultimately, that's what we want for these guys -- to be adopted out to loving, knowledgeable homes who will never let them go. So prepare yourself, then come take a look at some of our kids in our Petfinder listings at http://tinyurl.com/OFSPetfinder. Then call for an appointment: 503-557-8369.

Argh. So many little guys.

So I heard today that the shelter now has more than 200 little ferrets to feed. I went there to take some pictures. I have to start taking pictures quickly because if I stare over the rows and rows of furry heads for too long, I start to get freaked out.

While I was there, we had one return, two relinquishments, and one adoption. That's a three to one ratio of in to out. That can't be good. And this was just for a few hours.

After I went home and showered (cause photographing ferrets is sweaty work), I let out my own furkids to play. I have 10. I was wondering to myself if there was some way I could support more. Even though I KNOW we cannot afford more, I still ask myself that question every time I come home. It seems like I cannot possibly be doing enough.

OFS summer newsletter is HERE!

Yay! I finally put up the electronic version!

http://www.oregonferretshelter.org/OFSNewsletterSummer2010.pdf

Whew! On to the next project!

Halloween! And Technical Difficulties!

This month's meeting has been moved up to the 16th of October due to terribly sad circumstances (a funeral).
This is very sad.
But what is even sadder is my inability to let everyone know about this change. I am trying to piece together a emailing list from the various emails that have been sent to me. I wish I had not been so lazy until now -- having a working list of people invoved would have been a reeeeeeeally good idea.
So now I am wishing and hoping that I reach enough people in time.
If you are redaing this, and you haven't been told not to show up on the 9th, then I apologize.
There has got to be a better way...

BY THE WAY...
There is a Partylite Fundraiser coming up on November 5th. I'll be posting the flier for that online. Check our website's news page for further information.

http://www.oregonferretshelter.org/news.htm

Usually, most of the latest information can be found there. If it's not there, it means I am SWAMPED and will get to it as soon as possible.

Shelter Cleaning Day!

Although it is not the most glamorous part of rescue, Shelter Cleaning Day is a very important part of animal shelter work. It's that one day a year where everyone you can find will get together and help clean out the built-up crud around the shelter walls, cages, and floor. It is a vital part of the process, especially since some ferrets can be so sensitive to allergens (just like humans, sometimes you get a ferret with allergies).


Shelter Cleaning Day can also wreak havoc on your arms, legs, and butt, especially if you are not in shape (I am not) and if you aren't used to using a power washer (again, I am not). Even now, the Tuesday after, my butt still wants to know why we thought we could spend nine hours power washing and cleaning walls. I can't really answer that except to say that SOMEONE had to! Next time, perhaps, someone ELSE can be that "someone".

Included in this post are some pix I snapped while we were there. Look at the beautiful blue sky in the background of the third picture! At least the weather was perfect for it. We were lucky to get as much done as we did -- the next day, it poured rain. (Typical Oregon weather)



Many heartfelt thanks go out to all of the people who were there to help out. Your efforts were greatly needed and appreciated.