Editorial reprinted from Ferret Wise Frolic... Vol. 2, Issue 5

A ferret for $59 you say?, that's great, perhaps I will take one too!

This is an all too common problem here in New Hampshire. As the pet stores order direct from the ferret mill they are required to order in groups of 24 ferrets or more. This is a bulk shipment arrangement and monthly orders are required (yes each monthly order is 24 or more per store!). Of course, this means that in the summer while everyone is on vacation having great fun; while the shelters are full of the ferrets no one could stay home and take care of; the pet store accumulates kits that grow older.

When this occurs the most amazing thing happens! The prices begin to be reduced -- sometimes even to $59, allowing the store to break even on the deal. So, what happens to the $59 ferret? Well, youngsters who have summer jobs can afford a ferret. Perhaps they cannot afford the care the ferret deserves nor the amenities required, but they can afford the ferret and they take them home. Home to face their parents and whatever lies ahead.

I guess that is how the shelter got "Roxie"; we decided to call her that because she was found not far from Roxbury Road. "Roxie" was reported to the shelter over the Labor Day weekend, on Sunday to be exact, as a stray. The van was fired up and off rolled shelter Dad to meet this lost little ferret.

When the shelter Dad got there he found this very rural neighborhood. A gentleman had found this ferret trying to get some water from his outside faucet. Not knowing at the time what this creature was, he placed it in a hav-a-hart trap. Later a neighbor inquired as to what he had and informed him it was a ferret and he then called the shelter.

When Dad met the little ferret he was looking at a beautiful little child, perhaps 16 weeks of age, no older. A young sable sprite had actually been abandoned in the woods which abutted the gentlemen's home. The neighbor who informed the man it was a ferret had started searching for a reason for the ferret to be there at all. His investigation located a new high backed litter pan, a brand new baby blanket and a cut down box of ferret food nestled in the wooded area, with no water!

No, not a lost ferret, but an abandoned ferret, and a baby at that! Two blue tattoos in her ear identified her as a Marshall Farms ferret, one like the local pet store sells and orders direct from the producers. Curiously enough they had been on sale for $59 that week.

Well, "Roxie" made it home to the shelter for now. She had to have 2 blowfly larvae removed surgically from her belly three weeks after arriving, from bites that were inflicted during her abandonment in the woods. Since then she has had her booster shots and rabies immunization. She has also been microchipped as insurance against her being lost again.