Ferrets United

Forever Homes Wanted Ferret Rescue

by Jimi Hummel

Dana Jarrett has been open as a shelter since September 2006, in the suburbs of Houston, Texas. Her husband BJ and son Devin are very involved with the rescue. In that year she has taken in 72 ferrets. She lost 4 to heartworms, 4 to complications of Adrenal Disease, Insulinoma and other health issues. Currently she has 21 ferrets in the rescue. Of these 4 are ready for adoption, 7 have health or age issues. Two elderly ferrets are in a foster home. The rest are in need of vaccinations and/or surgery. Dana just got in eight ferrets from one rescue that really raised her numbers.

Dana is following the AFA, TARPA, and HAFA guidelines for rescue. She is really doing a great job of it. Her rescue inspections have met and exceeded the guidelines.

Unfortunately, she is very aware of health issues. Dana has had a few weird ferret health problems. Some I have never seen before. I told her she is trying to set a world record with weird ferret health issues. She gets all ferrets a physical, updates vaccinations, checks them for heartworms, and gets any needed surgeries done.

Dana also feeds high quality food, giving each new ferret a choice of eight (8) different food to choose from.

She has an isolation area, a controlled area for sick, or old ferrets. Dana has a main ferret room. She has different play areas.
One for the very active ferrets and one for the shy more sedate ferrets The Isolation and controlled rooms also have a play area.

Jane Arnold says of her adoption:

Our first ferret was a fert that wandered up our driveway. After a couple of years we decided that she would do better with a companion. I had joined the ferret meetup group just for that reason and was delighted to find out that there was a ferret rescue in the area so we could help one of the homeless. We took Bandy up for a play date at Dana's house and Bandy took to Snowball (a.k.a. Kitty, a.k.a. Rufus) and so we brought him home. They were sleeping togehter the first night on. And when it came time for Bandy to check out the rainbow bridge, we went back up to find our next partner in crime for Snowball; and we brought home Logan. I cannot say enough for Dana as well as her family that do so much for these lovable bandits.

According to Libby of the Houston Area Ferret Association:

I am so impressed with Dana's rescue efforts. She spends quite a bit of time evaluating each ferret's personality to determine which play group they will fit in. This helps her guide prospective adopters toward the right ferret for them. Some of these ferrets come from sad situations and Dana's rescue is the first kindness they've experienced. For some of the older or ill ferrets who have died, they left this world knowing Dana's love and care.

Sarah Goodyear, DVM says:

I work with several canine and feline rescue groups, and have worked with other ferret rescue groups in the past, and I can honestly tell you that Dana's Forever Homes ferret shelter is truly a class act. She takes such great care of her ferrets that you would never know that they weren't her own. (actually better than many people who do own there own ferrets) Any ferret that gets to come to her shelter should consider itself lucky.

She makes such an effort and loves them all so much.

My father, adopted a lovely ferret from there last year (Sophie) who really helped fill the void after his sweet little ferret, Mithrial (who I had given him) passed away from lymphoma. They really did a superb job of matching the perfect ferret for my father. My ferrets loved her too, although she wouldn't ride on the Roomba with Halfpipe.

Dana has volunteers that help the rescue. She is also allowing young people who need to get community service hours to volunteer. The rescue takes part in different community activities. It recently participated in a visit to the Ronald McDonald House. She will be part of the upcoming Kingwood Barktoberfest and the Old Town Spring PetFest. This allows the community to experience ferrets is a wide variety of circumstances.

Be sure and visit the rescue's website:
http://www.ferretrescuehouston.org

You can also find the shelter listed on Petfinders:
http://www.petfinder.com/shelters/TX1004.html