Ferret Footnotes

August Meeting Topic

What Would You Like to Do?

This was an informal meeting for the club. It was geared to find out what club members would like to see the club do.

Things discussed at the meeting....

Need more social activities: Spring picnic, PotLuck dinners, where some of the ideas that were tossed out. If anyone has any ideas on what types of events they would like to see please email officers (See Important Contacts).

Olympics: Find out who is interested in receiving info on these types of event to avoid mass mailings that mainly get thrown away. One way to do this is to hold a raffle of everyone that comes into the door at the olympics to find out who showed up at the event.

Need to pick out what shows we want to participate in: Homeshows, ARL Adoptathon, etc.

Need hosts for meetings, especially in North Dallas area.

What type of exposure does the club want in the community?

Basically it was pondered on about what our club would like to see in the future, especially regarding social events.

If you have any ideas or suggestions for what you as a club member would like to do in the future. Please contact any officer via email, call us on the Ferret Hotline, or drop us a line at Ferret Lovers' Club of Texas, P.O. Box 286, Bedford, TX 76095.

We'd love to hear from you.

Shelter Notes

Kozy Kingdom Ferret Rescue and Halfway House
rescue@kozykingdom.com http://kozykingdom.com/ferret rescue
P.O. Box 201013 Arlington, TX 76006-1013
Alpha Pager: 800-SPRINT-1 Pin 317-3247

Kozy Kingdom Ferret Rescue has been very busy since we've opened our doors just a few short months ago. During the last few weeks our population has grown to 17 ferrets from just 4 ferrets just a couple weeks ago.

First we have a new number to help out with things. By dialing 800-777-4681 (800-SPRINT-1) Pin 317-3247. Our preferred method is to select Option 2 and a live operator will come online to take your message and send it to us or you can leave us a numeric page or voice mail by selecting option 1. Sending an alphanumeric page is the quickest and best way to get a message to us or for us to help and get back to you as soon as possible.

We recently made a short trip to Little Rock, AR in a shelter exchange to help other ferret owners and shelters in Virginia and St Louis, MO. Recently, Bill and Diane Killian, Zen and the Art of Ferrets, desperately needed to reduce their population. Diane has become seriously ill and with their huge ferret population they were no longer able to care for so many, despite their love for ferrets. One of our own club members, Millie Sanders, also helped out by adopting two wonderful ferrets from them as well. Thanks to the help and efforts of the Petersens in St Louis, all 4 ferret arrived here without incident. With many more Zen ferrets traveling to Kansas and other points, even as far away as Idaho. Thanks to the help of the ferret community around the country these wonderful ferrets are getting the care and love they deserve.

Also, as many may know Patricia Israelson, Beggar's and Thieves in Plano, has been in Arizona caring for her father whom recently pasted away and was buried at Arlington National Cemetery with full military honors. David and Barbara Knepper had been helping Patricia, both while she was away and by acting as a satellite shelter in The Colony. With announcement of David's recent job transfer to West Virginia, and Patricia out of town with no definite date of return, Kozy Kingdom, stepped in took in those the Kneeper's had been sheltering, once again raising our population. With the recent changes in David's job and their relocation, Kozy Kingdom has also been helping by picking up ferrets that Beggar's and Thieves had been receiving calls about ferrets. Most recently we received a ferret from Rowlett Animal Control, and a couple surrenders in the North Dallas area.

With all the sudden growth, we were left with no other choice but seek out others to give us a hand with the sudden influx of ferrets. Thanks to the assistance of Karen Farrow, now fostering 4, Angel and her Significant other in Addison for doing pick ups, Judith Cipriano, for making and donating fleece blankets to make all the fuzzies as comfortable as possible, and Judy and Allen Killion in Plano, for fostering and doing pickups. Without their invaluable assistance Kozy Kingdom would no be able to do all we have been thus far. If you'd be interested in volunteering to help out, just give us a ring. However you're interesting in lending a hand, we're sure it would be warmly accepted and appreciated by ferret and human alike.

Don't forget Kozy Kingdom has a number of ferrets with a variety of ages, colors and personalities. Give as a call and we're sure we can match you to your next new wonderful bundle of ferret love and joy.

Dooks and war dances to all,

Matthew Stevens

Director, Kozy Kingdom Ferret Rescue

We'd also like to congratulate Boris and Natasha on their new human Judith Cipriano, Carrollton, TX, Also Zen Dizzy and Zen Jill of their new human Millie Sanders. Dooks and ferret kisses to all!

Get Your Heads Out Of Your Shoes!

We need volunteers to help with Club Activities! Call the Info Line: (Metro) 817 498-1470

Legalization

ANIMAL CONTROL REGULATIONS

Debra Thomason <president@texasferret.org>

President, Ferret Lovers' Club of Texas

As many of you are aware, Texas law allows individual cities to make many animal control regulations as they see fit. They may legally choose to restrict most any animal from being kept as a pet, and may handle potential rabies exposures as they wish so long as their regulation is not less restrictive than the state's. Most cities will tend to mirror the state so long as the state has rules and laws that apply specifically to the species in question. It has only been two years since the state made specific reference to quarantining biting ferrets at all, and less than 2 months since they included them in a 10-day quarantine rule that previously was exclusive to cats and dogs. As a result, many cities have ordinances or policies that are not ferret friendly, including complete bans in several cases.

What can our club do to improve this situation? We can educate officials of the cities and their animal control and health departments. We can supply them with documents that show that there is a management protocol for ferrets that includes encouraging rabies vaccination and brief quarantining for biting ferrets. Some still do not realize that a USDA licensed rabies vaccine has been approved for ferrets after 8 1/2 years! And though targeted mailings may have some benefit, the best way to achieve the desired result is through friendly, supportive education via direct contact. Laws will need to be changed in some cities, such as Dallas, Addison, Mesquite, Denton, Allen, Coppell, and Euless. Carrollton and Beaumont may also require a change to the law, but might be as simple as getting a policy changed. The only danger there is that it is easy to change a policy with no notice as they are not legally bound to it in any way. There may well be others, but the FLC does not have current copies of their codes to review at this time.

What can you, the ferret enthusiast, do? You can volunteer you time. Send me an e-mail give me a call (see info with officer listing) to find out if we need code from a city near you! Obtaining copies may be as simple as making a phone call to the city secretary and requesting a mailed or faxed copy, or it may require you to visit city hall and pay a small copying fee(generally $3-6). Volunteer for the legalization committee! We can prepare literature to use when approaching a city to change how it handles ferrets, from brief fact sheets to more involved documents and presentations. We have a lot of documentation and previous work to start from, but we need to make it easier to use and designed to get the most impact in the least space. We can attend city council meetings in the cities mentioned above to learn how their process works. We can work with interested citizens in those cities to make presentations to their animal control, health department, and city council officials. We can support them in one-on-one meetings with their council members when that is needed. A core group of interested people are needed participate in these activities. Also needed are citizens from "ferret-free zones" that are willing to stand up and tell their city officials that they want the codes changed. We cannot approach a city without at least one citizen.

We have successfully concluded work to legalize ferrets in Fort Worth. On August 7 I became the first person to register my ferrets with the city of Fort Worth. It went very smoothly, and I came away with two registration certificates and two license tags (which are unfortunately huge and will have to be revisited with animal control at some point). It's time to move on to another city. We had always expected Dallas to be next. There is a problem though. From what I have been able to learn of Dallas' city council schedule, it seems that they meet only on Wednesday mornings at 09:00. To make progress in Dallas there will have to be volunteers who can attend these meetings and speak in calmly and logically speak in support of ferrets as pets. Quite simply, I know of no one person can attend each of the series of meetings that goes into a legalization effort when so many of them will fall during business hours. While volunteers are needed in any city we try to change code in, they will be especially critical if we are to succeed in Dallas. If you are willing to help with this effort, please contact me. Our ferrets deserve to have the extra safety of being recognized legally as the domestic pet that they are.

Let's make it happen!

is proud to announce that it is now carrying:

TOTALLY FERRET®

972-320-8301

Special Pricing for Club Members

Kozy Kingdom
Halfway House & Rescue
P.O. Box 201013
Arlington, TX 76006-1013

Ferret Fun

Raisins Anonymous

Kathy, Bandit & "The Gang" <Unoheart@aol.com>

1) Spends most of his/her time at the food dish, poking his/her nose around searching desperately for raisins (or crumbs of raisins)

2) Frequently lies about exactly how many raisins he/she has already had that day

3) Hangs out closely under foot when you are distributing raisins to the other ferrets in the household, hoping you will drop some extras.

4) Misses work more than once a week (wait fuzzies don't work, even though they act as if they run the house.)

5) Do you find an empty raisin container/box more than once a week hidden in the ferret's favorite hidy-hole?

6) Does he/she find it difficult to start his/her day without a couple of raisins?

7) Do you find money missing from the change drawer or your purse, only to go to your local store and hear the grocer say that he saw a strangely disguised ferret purchasing raisins?

8) Do you find raisins stashed in various "secret" locations around the house?

9) Do you find raisin crumbs in your bed?

10) Lately, has your ferret been "hanging out": with rough looking fuzzies?

11) Lately, has your ferret been angry or depressed when he/she doesn't get as many raisins as he/she wants?

12) Does your fuzzie have raisin breath?

13) Has your ferret been missing school (wait, ferrets don't go to school, even though they think they know what is best for them, even it it involves dangerous activities.)

14) Does your ferret look at you constantly with big, sad, puppy-dog eyes and say "Can I have more raisins please?"

15) Do you find yourself making impromptu trips to the store or local quikmart at odd hours to buy more raisins for your fuzzies?

If any of these symptoms apply to your ferret, he/she may be a Raisinaholic. 34.5 million ferrets suffer from this fattening disease. You are not alone, and we here at Raisins Anonymous (RA) can help! We have successfully treated over 250,000 raisin craving ferrets. Our clean, friendly, atmosphere promotes the development of a lifestyle without so many darn raisins all the time! Please call us at 1-800-RAISINS for free information on our incredible program! Remember, you are not alone in your struggle to regain ownership of the raisins in the household!!!!

Matthew Stevens Is Writing For City & Country Pets

Matthew Stevens, Kozy Kingdom Ferret Rescue and FLC Officer, has been asked to write several articles in the monthly local pet magazine City + Country Pets. Be looking to see more articles and information about ferrets in future issues of City + Country Pets. This monthly magazine can be picked up at area veterinary offices, bookstores and other various locations, including some Club meetings. This is great news and is going to be a great way to reach more ferret owners across the Dallas/Ft. Worth Metroplex. So watch out, and be on the look out Dallas/Ft. Worth here come the ferrets!

Show your support and
pick up a copy today.

Shelter Notes Continued

Ferret Haven Update

We've been busy over here at Ferret Haven. Since we don't get the opportunity to see club members at the meetings due to the miles between us, we'd like to let you know what we're up to via the newsletter.

Besides keeping busy with the ferrets, we'd like to announce our new web page. It's titled, "How to Start and Maintain a Shelter". In addition to being a wonderful resource for ferret shelters, it's helpful to the ferret owner as well and stocked full of resources/links. Check us out at http://members.aol.com/ILuvNursin/index.html

We'd love to hear from you at any time. You can reach us by email at ILuvNursin@aol.com (guess what field we're in)!

We've also been very busy sending out mailers and copies of the Compendium to all the area animal control offices (all 10 of them). Of course we're encouraging them to honor the 10-day quarantine and will be making follow-up phone calls within the next week or so.

We will be writing an article for the newsletter soon to let you know about a special group of ferrets we've been taking in to the shelter. They are used in medical training and have many special needs. We hope to let others know about this and hope you will look in your area to see if there's ferrets in this type of situation that may need your help. Look for our upcoming article.

Look for us at the Ferret Olympics! We'd love to meet each and every one of you. Please ask Debra or Linda where we're at when you go and stop to say hello!

Club Issues

New Internet Presence

"Matthew Stevens" <membership@texasferret.org>

Mailing List Coordinator, Ferret Lovers' Club of Texas

Recently, the Ferret Lovers' Club of Texas invested in a domain name, texasferret.org as the new location of the FLC, heightening it presence on the internet.. With this new domain it will allow us to bring continuity and make it easier for all to get and stay in touch with the club on the internet. With the new domain everything you previously found on the web with regards to the club has moved to this more convenient and easier to remember location. Those that had previously been on the mailing list were moved over to the new list. However I regret that a few were missed due to either the recent mailing list meltdowns (which precautions have been taken to prevent this in the future) or due to mere over sight. We apologize for this!

To (un)subscribe to the mailing list send email to:

Ferret-request@texasferret.org
Subject: Subscribe or unsubscribe

Or digested version:

Ferret-d-request@texasferret.org
Subject: Subscribe or unsubscribe

If you have any problems or questions about the list send email to ferret-request@texasferret.org

Everyone in the FLC looks forward to seeing you on our exciting new presence on the Internet. Also part of the new domain is it makes it easier to get a hold of any of the officers of the club.

All Officers: officers@texasferret.org

President: president@texasferret.org

Vice President: vicepresident@texasferret.org

Secretary: secretary@texasferret.org

Show Coordinator: shows@texasferret.org

Merchandising: merchandise@texasferret.org

Web Page Coordinator: webmaster@texasferret.org

Information Coordinator: info@texasferret.org

Treasurer: treasurer@texasferret.org

Membership Coordinator: membership@texasferret.org

Public Relations: pr@texasferret.org

Publications: publications@texasferret.org

So be looking for new and exciting changes in the FLC web page. All this information is available online as well at www.texasferret.org

Cover Ferret

LITTLE GIRL & ROMEO

Romeo (large one, bottom) watches as Little Girl (smaller one, top) throws a weasel wardance fit. Little Girl and Romeo share their house with Oscar and Abbey, two rescues, as well as some fosters from Kozy Kingdom Ferret Rescue and Shelter.

Little Girl and Romeo love people and cats. They will wrestle with each other, their humans or the cats. Romeo was a present that was bought through a pet store about three years ago. Little Girl came from an ad in the paper. Both are Marshall Farms Ferrets.

Fort Worth Animal Control

Fort Worth Animal control now adopts out ferrets. They must have their shots and be spayed/neutered within 30 days (if age allows) or else animal is seized.

Health Issues

GARLAND DISTEMPER ALERT

Notice for Dog Owners from City Veterinarian, Dr. Kim Haynes

We are seeing a very high number of distemper cases. I am basing this on the animals that we are receiving in with clinical signs of distemper and the number of dead animals that we are picking up with a history of distemper diagnosis and/or history of a disease course consistent with distemper.

Distemper is a viral illness of canines. Ferrets and raccoons also are susceptible to this disease. Distemper most often affects unvaccinated dogs in the 4-6 month age group, but it can affect other ages. The classical case of distemper begins with a discharge from the eyes and nose which becomes thick and crusty. The dog may cough and may have diarrhea. Neurological signs such as difficulty walking, involuntary muscle twitching and seizures may appear. Distemper has a very high mortality rate. This disease is spread primarily through the air by the respiratory secretions. It also can be spread through contact with other body fluids. The best prevention is to make sure your pet is properly vaccinated and keep your pet away from stray or unvaccinated dogs. For puppies, this means a complete set of vaccinations, not just one or two. If you have any doubts about your pet's vaccination status, please contact your veterinarian.

FFRS WISH LIST

The shelter also needs donations of the following supplies: paper towels, bleach, litter, hairball medication, vaccines, food (Iams kitten or Totally Ferret), and other medications. You can also help by sponsoring or fostering a needy ferret. Donations can be made directly to the FFRS vet account at the Bowen Rd. Animal Clinic. Check out the new web site for the Ferrets First Rescue and Shelter at http://www.flash.net/~ffrs

Please help if you can. If you wish to make a donation, become a sponsor, or request an adoption application packet, please contact shelter director Patricia Curtis at metro (817)596-0558. Or at ffrs@flash.net

Call for Volunteers! We need you to work the Ferret Olympics Sept. 26!

Remember that all volunteers get FREE admission (human) to the Olympics

'98 OLYMPICS WEBPAGE IS ONLINE

http://www.ticnet.com/ferretolympics

Thanks to Larry Fewell again
for doing our show website

Legalization

Legalization Committee

We need some people who are interested in seeing ferret "legalized" in the metroplex. If you can help please call the ferret hotline and leave a message for Debra. Unfortunately without some interest in the legalization efforts of our club, we might be forced to slow down our efforts. Currently we are needing residents from Dallas, Euless, and other areas that are FFZ.

Help us help our ferrets become legal in your towns as well as others!

Thank You

CHECK IT OUT!

We've got our new website up and running. Remember to BOOKMARK
our new website at www.texasferret.org!

Officers Notes

KAREN FARROW

Publications, Ferret Lovers' Club of Texas

I am Karen Farrow, who is currently owned by Romeo, Little Girl, Oscar and Abbey (my rabid rat). I am a relatively new ferret owner. Unlike many of you, I have only had ferrets for about three years (but as you can tell, ferret math is starting). Romeo was my first, he is supposedly a Marshal Farms ferret, but because he doesn't look like the stereotypical MF ferret and has no tattoos it is sometimes called into question about who his true breeder was; next I acquired Little Girl from an ad in the newspaper, she has definite MF tattoos. Then Oscar and Abbey came into my life as rescues that I adopted from Kozy Kingdom Ferret Rescue.

There are a couple of issues that I would like to address at this time. The first being obviously the newsletter. I want to start off by apologizing for the lateness of the newsletter and especially to those of you who are only getting them online and have not seen a newsletter in months now. I did not realize the amount of work Erika was putting into the position of publications, and it did kinda catch me off guard. This was also compounded by my husband and I separating, some health problems that ended up me having to have surgery, then some complications after the surgery, as well as working way too much at my real job (as most of you do as well).

I am going to try to get the newsletter out no later than one week prior to the next meeting. But this will require some help from you, the members. What ends up taking the longest amount of time is the acquiring of information to put in the newsletter. I would like to invite you to either email or write via US snail mail me a story (or even a letter to the editor, Romeo) or suggestions for what you'd like to see in upcoming newsletters. Romeo is frantically looking for Ferret Fun Facts to put in the newsletter, and as many of you know, these are hard to find.

Another problem I run into is the lack of pictures of club member's ferrets. As most of you have no doubt noticed, I am trying to include more pictures of ferrets and ferret related people in the newsletter, but unfortunately, unless you want it to become a Farrow Ferret collage, I will need pictures of other people's ferrets. Please either email or send to me. (If you email me the photo, please try to scan it at 150 dpi or better, this is required for the printed newsletters. It can be a jpg, bmp, tif, or any other picture format--except Corel Photopaint. You are also encouraged to .zip it or Stuffit. As a file of that resolution will be quite large.) And for those of you who have given me photos, I thank you profusely!

Next I would like say thank you to the club for being a supportive group. I have learned much about the little animals that have stolen my heart, as well as my keys, my socks, my soap, and toilet paper (now if I could only find where Oscar stashed it). I hope it remains a group that is looked to for support (whether it is in Texas or out of State) and one that is respected for it's knowledge and understanding.

I have been impressed with the way legalization efforts are highly successful with our organization. And because I have been involved in other more "fanatical" animal groups, I understand what kind of bias' we are having to work around. Let me tell you the old saying is true: you DO catch more flies with honey!

I hope to see you all at the Ferret Olympics and
Don't Forget to Volunteer!