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Unfortunately, due to financial difficulty and unforeseen household circumstances, our shelter is temporarilly closed to owner
surrenders. We are, however, still open for emergency rescues such as:
1) Ferrets slated for euthanasia at humane societies and animal shelters
2) Ferrets found running at large
3) Any situation where a ferret's life is in immediate danger.
In the meantime, we are offering our services as a ferret placement agency to owners looking to find their ferrets a new
home. Our website is available, free of charge, for owners to post their available ferrets on for as long as they need until
they find a home.
If you would like to take advantage of this service, send an email to us with the following:
1) A picture of each ferret (or a group photo if you have more than one fuzzy)
2) A short biography including the ferret's age, health, personality quirks and anything you would like potential adoptors
to know.
3) Your general location (city, state)
4) Your contact information that you would like posted (phone number, email address or both)
Once we receive this information, we will post it on the website within 1-3 days. It will remain on the website until
we receive notice from you that the ferret(s) have been adopted, so it is very important that you contact us after the adoption,
so that we may make the space for more adoptables on the site and stop sending applications your way.
LOS of IA will continue to take adoption applications and screen potential adoptors. If they pass, we will forward on
the information to those whose ferrets are in need of homes.
We regret that we are not able to personally take in any further owner surrenders at this time, and apologize for any
inconvenience this may cause. We want to stress that this is a temporary situation, and we plan to open the rescue again
in the future.
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Some words of advice for placing your ferret in another home...
1) Charge a minimal adoption fee. This helps weed out potential undesirable owners, such as those that would sell the
ferret to a lab or research facility or animal collectors just looking for "free to a good home." If you would
like a suggestion as to what to charge, let us know when you send in your ferret's information and we'll give you a guideline.
2) Make sure you're being honest. Don't say your ferret is litter trained when it isn't. This is only a disservice to
the ferret, and any potential new owner.
3) Bring your ferret current on vaccinations and ADV testing, if you haven't done so already. Also, if your ferret is
not spayed or neutered, have that procedure done as well. Most people are looking for pets, and many already have ferrets.
Therefore, having these procedures done and up to date make your ferret a more attractive adoption candidate. Most ferret
owners will not take an unaltered ferret, or one whose vaccines and ADV tests are not current - they don't want to put their
current ferrets' lives at risk.
4) Go with your gut instinct. Don't just give your ferret(s) to the first people you get an email from unless you think
they would be a good home. Talk to them extensively and maybe even visit their residence to find out if they're suitable
ferret parents.
5) Be wary of those that want the ferret as a gift. No animal makes a great gift. Make sure the people know what they're
getting into by owning a ferret.
6) You may have to do a little education. A lot of people make great ferret parents, as long as they know beforehand
what to expect. Some have done the research, others have not. That doesn't mean their not well-suited. Find out if they
have the financial resources to care for a ferret for it's entire life. Explain the benefits and downsides to owning a ferret.
As I mentioned before, go with your gut instinct...if something doesn't seem right about the person who's contacted you -
then you should say "no." Every single time I went against my instinct it came back to bite me in the rear...don't
make the same mistakes I did.
7) We are here to help you. If at any time you would like us to interview a potential new home, give you some insight,
etc, just let us know. We are still very much a rescue minded organization, and want the best for your ferret(s).
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