Cascade Ferret Network
Our Featured Pet...
Mathilde is a 3-4 year old sturdy sable sprite that needs a forever home. Mathilde was named after the female character in the French movie "A Very Long Engagement". The character Mathilde was unable to walk, but she had an indomitable spirit that was not hindered by her disability. The ferret Mathilde arrived in October as a stray from Lebanon Oregon. The people that found her had had her several days and said she was not able to use her hind legs. A CFN volunteer made the 4 hour round trip to pick her up as soon as possible so Mathilde could be evaluated by Dr. Ramsell. There were several possible reasons why she was not using her hind legs. One possibility was that she had a spinal injury from some sort of trauma, like a fall or an animal attack. She had no other injuries or bruises to indicate any sort of trauma. She might also have a cancer that was dissolving her spinal column in which case her paralysis would be permanent and would get worse, we have seen this in several cases over the years. This can be hard to diagnosis and there is little that can be done for the ferret as the cancer continues to destroy their backbone. Another possibility was that she was too weak to walk because she was emaciated from not eating for a long period of time. Luckily that could not be the case since Mathilde was not particularly thin (although she has put on 200 grams - a little less than 1/2lb- since her arrival). The last likely scenario was that she had been kept in such a small enclosure for such a long period of time that her muscles had become atrophied so much that she was unable to use her hind legs normally. If that was the case, she would improve quickly as she used her muscles more and more. When Mathilde first arrived she could drag herself around with her front legs and if her hind end was supported, she could move her hind legs and "walk". Within days she was able to make it a few steps across a surface with good traction on her own before flopping over onto her side. Soon she wasn't flopping over at all and now she can skip and dance across a slick surface almost as well as a youngster. Mathilde has a strong personality and loves to hand wrestle with humans, although sometimes she gets into it a little too much and the human ends up yelping. She also gets along wonderfully with other friendly ferrets. She doesn't have any tattoos, so we don't know what breeder she is from. If you think you can give Mathilde the love and attention she deserves for the rest of her life, contact CFN
News
7th Annual Northwest Pet & Companion Fair
April 19th and 20th
Portland Expo Center
www.petfairs.com
CFN will have a booth at the fair again as we have for the last 6 years.
Cascade Ferret Network's
7th Annual Ferret Awareness Day
Date TBA, 1-4pm
Oregon Humane Society
This is CFN's main fund raising event for the year and it is always a lot of fun. . There will be raffles, silent auctions, new and used merchandise, discount vet exams, a shelter ferret playpen, and more!
Who We Are
The Cascade Ferret Network (CFN) is different from traditional ferret shelters: instead of housing the ferrets in a single place, the CFN depends upon a network of qualified foster homes, each of which cares for only a few ferrets at a time. This network approach to sheltering ensures our foster ferrets receive the highest possible quality of care.
Adopting a friend
Come Visit Us!
www.cascadeferret.org
Cascade Ferret Network
PO Box 14884
Portland, OR 97293
Phone: 503-231-0887
web page: www.cascadeferret.org
Email:
ferret@cascadeferret.org
Click here for a list of pets at this shelter
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