"Fostering has worked out very well for us! Ferrets are wonderfully playful, affectionate, and loving animals that simply need a good home for their exuberant personalities to blossom! We're grateful for the privilege of being delighted by them every single day and grateful to the shelter for helping us keep them healthy!"
John & Michele
Visit our Happy Tails! page for more happy endings like this.
Fostering ferrets
Foster parents are a special kind of volunteer. Fosters at WFRS are not a
temporary lacement s in some shelters. For us, a foster is a permanent
placement of a special-needs ferret who otherwise wouldn't have a chance for
a home. Some are severe behavioral issues, some have chronic ailments
that will need medication and treatment for life, and some are hospice.
By placing the ferret in a foster home that is tightly involved with the
shelter, we accomlish several things:
- Ferrets get to live in a home environment with someone who is watching them closely, and who has been trained to deal with their issues, and who has access to the shelter medical resources
- The shelter ensures that the fosters get the medical care they need, and can monitor them closely
- The shelter has more space for adoptable ferrets, that can be placed in permanent adoptive homes
Here is a story from a foster parent, Kevin, about how three kids captured his heart - but ended up giving back so much more:
"In my house, we have come to a compromise. Many compromises, in fact, but this one says no more than three ferrets. I love our three ferrets - Bandit, Lilo, and Stitch.
Lilo and Stitch were adopted from WFRS, but that's a story for another day.
"I'd been volunteering at the shelter ... and enjoying it immensely. I figure if I couldn't take all the ferrets home with me, at least I could care for them and play with them!
As Christmas came closer, the idea of the ferrets spending the holidays alone in the shelter was getting to me. So, as a special treat, we decided as a family to bring a group of
ferrets home.
"(There was) a group of three older ferrets that were having a very hard time adjusting after being surrendered. (It is not uncommon for older ferrets to go into "shelter shock" when they lose their humans.)
"So we took in Laura, Sammy and Wilma (who turned out to be a Will!). The three were quite depressed, and ate up the attention we gave them, but it wasn't enough. They weren't eating well, and stomach problems soon followed. I learned a great deal about caring for sick ferrets.
"Laura, in particular was a big concern. At 1 1/2 pounds, she just didn't have any reserves to draw on. I ended up feeding them a "duck soup" mixture  of baby food, kibble and broth blended to a milkshake consistency. They were also on a couple of other medicines to calm their tummies. Let me tell you, ferrets do NOT like Pepto Bismol!! It's a good thing that I look good covered in pink splatters!
"This was a very intense time, but the rewards as they started coming around were enormous! It was so great to see them get to feeling better. I danced around the house when they each started eating on their own! The next stage was getting to see their personalities come out when they felt good enough to start playing! Laura adopted a little plush toy and dragged it all over with her. Will would play rough like a big tough guy, and then curl up on my chest to sleep, melting my heart. Sammy just wanted to cuddle with everyone.
The Washington Ferret Rescue & Shelter has a network of more than 20 active foster homes throughout the Puget Sound region. We are so very, very grateful to these incredible volunteers and thank them for their commitment to helping ferrets.
If you think fostering might be a good option for you, please contact us by phone or email, or stop by the shelter during our public hours each Saturday from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. We'd love to introduce you to our ferrets and talk with you about our foster program.
Click here for Google Maps' directions to the shelter.
You can also take a look at these forms for some more information about fostering for WFRS:
Foster application (PDF)
Foster caregiving information (PDF)
Foster contract (PDF)
Foster agreement and understanding (PDF)
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