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Fostering!
Fostering is like long-term babysitting. It isn't simply a matter of adding an addition to your family like you would if adopting. We require that we get to know you and you get to know us so everyone can be comfortable!
There are four Foster Care Categories
Short Term Emergency These are usually pick-ups of ferrets that are at one of the animal control facilities or that have been found by people. We usually have you bring them in right away or within a day or two.
Short Term These are fur kids on our waiting list that need to come in and we don't have room for them. Foster care in this category runs from a few weeks to a few months.
Long Term Healthy 2-4 year olds that are hard to adopt because they are "too old" and in some cases, a bonded trio that can't be broken up. Foster care is from several months to whenever the foster parents can't care for them any longer, or they develop adrenal/insulinoma or other illnesses.
Special Needs Abused furbabies who are fear biters or just chompers because they were never nip trained properly, and minimal care adrenal/insulinoma kids in the early stages of their diseases. These little sweeties only go to people who are experienced in caring for fuzzies with their particular problems.
Other requirements is that foster parents keep separate cages/play times (as it's unfair to any other ferrets in the household and the foster ferret to let them become bonded only to be separated again), use our vets, and feed our shelter mix food. We also only foster in the Twin Cities area. However we do occasionally need people in other areas to take ferrets on an emergency basis (or permanantly in their area).
Another warning: it's very easy to get *very* attached to your fostered ferret! We actually lose many foster homes due to foster parents deciding to adopt their charges. While this is good for the ferret, we still need foster homes!
A question that may be brought up: since ferrets can become very stressed when changing to new environments, how can moving a ferret to a temporary home be good for them? The answer is that we do not foster any ferret that has "crashed" in the past, and we work hard to get young ones used to moving every few months when they come in. Ferrets can be very adaptable when exposed to different situations at a young age, and we work very hard to try to accomplish this. This is also one of the reasons we want to get to know you before fostering, so you can learn and we can be sure you know the subtle signs of a problem starting *before* it becomes a major thing. Unfortunately that's not something that can be learned from a pamphlet.
If you would like to become a foster home, call Laura at 651-439-5209 or Nancy 651-458-8061 and leave a message if your first call doesn't get them directly!
Sponsoring
We also have a program where people can sponsor a "pred kid", one of our many ferrets who is a permanant resident and on prednisone for medical needs. $25 will sponsor a kid for six months and help defray the costs of medical care. Call Laura for more information.
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Updated October 27, 2004
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