In Memoriam of Wes Hurley11-19-1934--10-13-2010; The Ferret and Dove Sanctuary, Inc. We respect the rights of all creatures to their lives in comfort.
Great links to ferret, dove care-related sites...and Ferret Friends
best place for finding pets ,responsibly, on the web.
go here and click on
All About care and more links for DOVES! Eurasian collared doves are also listed in the species section....
great first-aid how-to for pigeon or dove care-persons
The American Ferret Association. much great stuff!
FINISHED WITH ENGINES “They no longer hear the calling of the watches, or the falling of the storm rain in the night. Seas shall weary them no more, for they have reached their final haven – their further shore.” M. E. B. A. MARINE OFFICER (magazine), spring-summer 2011 edition. Wesley Hurley's obituary with photo from his old passport submitted by wife on page 42
This video put together from 2007, aired Oct. 2008 on the show "Animal Rescue".
and we have filled out the finder's form for the American racing Pigeon union for someone representing a local pigeon racing club (With approp.I.D., please!) to claim this lovley bird.
And the second is Gemaliel Dove, a white-feathered version of the same species of collared dove, more commonly known as a domestic dove in most of the world.~*~.~*~.~*~. ~*~.~*~.~*~.~*~.~*~.~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Here we are from November, 2007.
. .~*~.~*~.~*~.~*~.~*~.
Already adopted and waiting to be brought to their new home, these young doves, named for characters in Piers Anthony's "Xanth" novels,
, They are Karia Centaur Dove, Neysa Unicorn Dove And Stanley S. Dragon Dove, also given a mention on this terrific author's newsletter at www.hipiers.com . And here are adult doves who are four years old and sent from a wonderful bird rescue named "Wings Of Hope" from Jackson, New Jersey. This is Snow Bunting Dove
on her new nest which she and her mate, Bullet McQueen Dove have built into the sleeping-donut donated by their friends, the ferrets.
(Nancy & Casper's story)
ready to begin their new lives as educational ferrets! 
and then here's Wes beginning to put in some of the new-Xmas bedding for the older ferrets all about to get a big new home!
Now here's the ferrets it was donated in the names of...first ones in! Samson Soup-Lover and Ninja The Widget...Yes, the very same little Ninja, now an older ferret, who gave her love to her Make-A-Wish-kid, the beautiful Caitlyn...
Here they are, again,(Samson and Ninja) with part of one of their two old friends, Clyde DEW Nicely, shown scooting along the "upstairs"
and, finally, here is their other friend, Chloe DEW Lovey...four old friends all comfy together in a huge new living-space!
Sincere, lifelong thanks from all of us for this wonderful donation!
Pigeons are descendants of rock doves. This just goes to show we durned serious rescuers because we sure do take in the ugly dove-lings along with the "purty" ones. :) Here's how Purple Huey looks, now;
we cannot adopt him away nor give him away, because he flies right back to his original roost, under our wide outdoor patio. He sure has made this HIS Sanctuary!
Roc
kin' Robin Thrush was found 'gasping' in the middle of a nearby street late one last summer. Taken in and given elecrolyte fluids and some "baby bird food" that one of our other directors had donated, Rockin' Robin recovered it's strength over two days and was released to continue its journey of migration with all the other robins.
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, of the Nemours Children's Clinic of Pensacola was the liason for the "Make a Wish Foundation" to help make a fine young lady's dearest wish come true, which was to own a domestic American ferret as her beloved companion. Her Wish Came True as soon as silvery Rikki Tikki Tavi was poured into her arms, he began licking Caitlyn all over her arms in loving welcome
and then, to make a pleasant occasion even more pleasant, Rikki's little lady-buddy named Ninja The Widget climbed over him and gave Caitlyn a welcoming lick on the nose, too! So this formerly not so happy young lady was a
very happy and proud Ferret-"mom" 
of TWO superbly fine and already devoted companions! Is that great or What?!!(the third picture shows Ninja The Widget saying goodbye, gotta go Home with my New MOM!).~*~.~*~.~*~.~*~.~*~
We're unutterably saddened to report that lovely Caitlyn has crossed the Rainbow Bridge and soon after she did, she was followed by a grieving Rikki-Tikki-Tavi who simply pined away after losing his Wish-Lady. Ninja The Widget was turned back to the shelter by Caitlyn's family and has recovered somewhat after being paired with another oldster-ferret , Samson Soup-Lover, but after also having lost Caitlyn, little older Ninja the Widget has lost all the original springiness in her tiny step.
This is Chance,Dook-dook of Earl, a big, friendly fellow who was turned in to a cat-and-dog shelter with his arm broken in two places. The shelter-vet and then our vet each checked him out and x-rayed the little arm to be sure the bones were re-set and he was checked by the vet at the every-two-week checkup while he had to wear it.
He had a "happy ending", getting adopted by a really terrific family! *****************************************
Coco Chanel came to us old, thin and totally bald. With treatment of a melatonin implant and regular feedings of extra homemade "duck soup", she has regained her hair and a lot of needed weight. Millie Vanillie was one of Shelley A's original ferrets and is a friend in need to ferrets like Coco and others. WOW, Look at Coco Chanel AFTER her melatonin implant, about three weeks after it was inserted at the vet's, she began to grow fur on her neck. Then a week later, more new fur sprouted on the rest of her...and it's still growing!
Doesn't she look terrific?! ( and you can see her best buddy Millie Vanillie is her main cheering section :)
.~*~.~*~.~*~.~*~.~*~.~*~.~*~.~*~.~*~.~*~.~*~.~*~.~*~.FOR THOSE NO LONGER WITH US, WAITING AT THE RAINBOW BRIDGE~*~*~
and this is one of the main reasons we work at what we do all day long...to bring comfort to little helpless dears like this.
Cleopatra Pearl came in as a fierce little "biter' who gradually learned to trust and love and even "give kisses".
.~*~.~*~.~*~.
, and the very next photo is exactly 8 weeks later, after her treatment. It doesn't work on all ferrets the same who have adrenal cancer tumors, but it sure did work for little Sandy LeQuick!
Here is Sandy LeQuick for 2004 with her new friend Bandit Waggy-Tail
Sandy is showing her latest symptom-recovery from her third long-term shot of Lupron to treat her cancer and Bandit-Waggy had a benign chordoma on the end of his tail which the vet removed and has also recovered spectacularly!
In 2007 we recieved an intake of six newly rescued Eurasian Collared doves, one of them white
inside the aviary 
whose new names are Mystrielle Dove, Sir Gawain Dove, Sir Brian Dove, and Julianne Dove.These are their "official" "before" photos, because they've just come in from being somewhat too close to one another before and have just relaxed and ceased to peck at one another, now that everyone has wing-room enough to at least fly around.Here, in this big photo, is a one-month later example of just how beautifully the newly rescued doves have re-grown their feathers and joined our elder doves 
and to save space, I had a bunch more photos like this but I'm sure you get the general idea from this one :)~*~.~*~.~*~.~*~.~*~.
and has become very good friends with the cats, ferrets rabbit and doves here in the Sanctuary.
Mulan SharPei was rescued right at the doorway of our local county animal shelter, where we intercepted her tearful elderly former owner who was checking herself into an assisted living facility. The county shelter folks said that if they checked in the shar pei, they would have to destroy her because her breed is similar/close to that of the Chow and they had a policy of destroying certain breeds which included pit bull terriers, and chows. So we took the care of Mulan Shar Pei who became best-friends with our rabbit, at the time, which(the rabbit) has since died of a happy old age, and now Mulan makes friends with any "new" rescued rabbits that we take in for adoption from one of the animals shelter in a nearby county to where we are. ~*~.~*~.~*~.~*~.~*~.~*~.~*~.
these best-friends are Cassidy Rabbit (almost white) and Linus Rabbit (brown lop-ear) These two lovable-bunnies have been adopted. . ~*~*~*~*~*~*~.~*~.~*~. All the ferrets' medical care is carefully monitored by Ferry Pass Animal Hospital, and sometimes by East Hill Animal Hospital of 12th Ave., Pensacola. There also are 2 24-hour emergency veterinarian facilities nearby to this Rescue's location for any sudden illnesses or off-hours traumas, etc. We look after our fur-babies 24-hours, 7 days a week, and feed the ill and weak every four hours right around the clock. .~*~.~*~.~*~.~*~.~*~.~*~.~*~.~*~.~*~.~*~.~*~.
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Here is a good picture of Simone So-Lovely, a saintly soul leading a prayer from all of us for those ferrets who have crossed the Rainbow Bridge: Rest in gentlest Peace and happiness: Snuggles LuWeasey, Indigo Iridescent, Molly Blue-Angel,Shadow Superguy, Smokey Joe Oldster, Baby Darkeyes, BabyDoll Babushka,Poindexter White,Evander Brown Ferret,Caira The Winsome,Cecelia Cinnamon, Felicia Ferrette, Zipper-Goes-Faster,Mesquite Smokey, Phyllis The Fair, Gusselwaite The Good, Sandy LeQuick, Spanky LeBeau, and Harley Davidson Ferret.
To which we add, May the Great and Merciful Goddess of all Goodness watch over Simone So-Lovely, too.
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(Susie's soapbox)
Animal Rescuers of every sort are, in their ways, a counter-balance to the uncaring and abusive elements of humanity. Rescuers of cats, dogs, birds, horses, elephants (there's a rescue/shelter just for retired performing elephants in the United States), hedgehogs, ferrets, rabbits, et cetera, et cetera...all of us who do what we do is done purely for love of our fellow creatures, with whom we share planetary space, and MANY of us, in our actions, attempts to educate the rest of the human community, and push for more protective and defensive laws for animal rights and against all forms of abuse...many of us are deliberately setting our actions in counter-balance to all the neglect and abuse already done and still going on...
there's a word for this kind of karma-in-action which more, and more persons are taking up, I'm just one of (really!) very many!, and I cannot think of it, but it's the kind of person Mohandas Ghandhi determined to become, effecting change for the good by BEING (at least part of) the change for the good. 
and they stayed on and lived out their lives to comfy old ages through 2004 when first Katie, and then her staunch friend, look-out and supporter Falcor LuckDragon each died very quietly in their sleep surrounded by every possible comfort we could concieve of for them.
True and steadfast friends who teach us new lessons in loyalty what true friendship is, Every Day. 
In October of the year 1999, a small, elderly silver lady-ferret was
brought to Wes Hurley and Susie Lee-Hurley's house by a member of the
Navy's Blue Angels team who was being transferred to California, and
glad to find someone like us who could look after his then 7 years
old companion-ferret. He'd had her checked by the bases' vet, who
didn't give her more than two weeks to live, at that time. Her former
Blue Angel friend said she wouldn't eat any other food but raisins
and sometimes a lick of ferretone.
So Molly Blue-Angel came into our permanent care, and she was
somewhat desperate: almost purely skin-and-bones, blind and very
weak, we had her to our vet's to see what could be done to help or at
least comfort her. Turned out that she had severe intestinal ulcers,
and had lost several teeth, possibly from calcium loss plus the
grinding that ulcer-pain brings on. But she wouldn't die. Quickly we
had her on antibiotics and carafate and tiny drops of pepto-bismol
and chicken babyfood with ferretvite softened into a drinkable soup
and given with a tiny doll's bottle, a little every hour in between
or with whatever meds were on her schedule by our somewhat more
ferret-knowing vet. Then, after the first desperate two days, I fed
her every hour-and-a-half, then the fourth day, every two hours, and
a bit more at a time. By the end of the week, Molly Blue-Angel was
beginning to fill back out from her former skeletal appearance and
behave more like an active and spritely ferret. On a final visit
before shipping out, her former owner was much comforted at his
little friend's recovery and apparent happiness with us.
Molly never seemed to recover all her mental faculties, though, for
she would only very occasionally eat any kibble along with her other
two new cage-mate friends, (Coco LeCreme, who was just one year
younger, 6 years old in 1999, and Zinc-a-Dinc-A-Zoo!, another year-
younger than Coco LeCreme). However she always still liked to nose
out and munch a good juicy raisin.
And so began a habit I'm finding it very hard to break, feeding Molly
Blue-Angel every four hours a cooked, softened rice-and-chicken
kibble with medicinal herbs added which are first cleared and
approved by our vet, and a few drops of colloidal silver to safely
kill any gram-negative bacteria so that I can blend in to this
mixture several whole raw eggs. Four years. Every four hours for the
last four years, it's been "time to feed Molly Blue-Angel", and, also
others who have come under our wing of caring, and feeding. She's
made every moment well worth it. The last two weeks, she'd become
extra-frail, and had been having more difficulty swallowing, I would
go verrry slowly with her feeding while she'd wrap both tiny front
hands around one of my fingers and cling tightly as a tiny, tiny baby.
This morning, at the very ripe age of ten years and two months old,
she gently breathed her last breath.
But she still isn't really dead,
for her bright little spirit is already hovering like a tiny star,
glinting around the house. A Blue little star, flashing and zipping
in the newfound freedom of it's indomitable little spirit.
The Fiddly Ferret, by Susie Lee ~*~*~****~*~*~
(she's now almost 13 years old, and has always been too smart for my own good :)Also, this is one of Sphynx's grown children, Red Blazin' Star, a second son from her second litter, born in 1996
he has many of his mother's mannerisms, but one of his own is to stick his little tongue out just a teeny bit while he's purring.
who was rescued by Wes as a kitten from a boy who had accidentally broken one of her legs, which has since healed.~*~*~*~.
Elrond Buttontail is an almost-manx and flame-point siamese whose mother was killed by an automobile when he was a tiny fluff of a kitten, and so we took him in. He's grown to be a big, soft-furred and handsome neutered male cat, but he's afraid to allow anyone else but us to touch him, so we're unable to adopt him out.
(calming down all the excitement with ferrets by gazing on our tetra fish tank) Here we are with our favorite volunteers...this picture you might call "the Four Ferret-teers!" :)
( and this second one was before I cracked a joke:)
************************ (can't top that!:) 
This & 15 more chinchillas were dumped on us late in 2004,(just as we were overloaded with Hurricane Ivan turned-in ferrets and rabbits) but help came for them by a Chinchilla Rescue of the Great State of Georgia, to see their story go to http://www.trendata.net/chins...also, their story was in the Feb-March 2005 issue of "Chinchillas" Magazine. As a Happy Ever After,as of June, 2005, all the Florida Rescued chinchillas were adopted out by the Chinchilla Rescue & Sanctuary of Georgia! Another nice note, Ferrets Magazine has published an article about ferret-specific shelters quoting us&(just)2 other shelter-operators in the USA. Look in Ferret Magazine's March-April, 2006 issue!
