You didn’t think we only dealt in cats and dogs, did you?
Our Community Solutions team gets questions about all sorts of animals: bears, spiders, snakes, raccoons in dumpsters, tortoises, more bears, deer, ducks, groundhogs…the list goes on.
But it’s not every day that we get a call about a ferret.
Some Good Samaritans found a ferret underneath their car and brought it into the Buncombe County Animal Shelter. The AHS admitting team immediately started scouring their records because they remembered seeing a recent report of a missing ferret.
They found the report for Pabu, a ferret who managed to get out of his home in East Asheville. But the report was already two weeks old and the ferret who was brought in had been found over 10 miles from where Pabu went missing.
What were the odds this really was the same ferret? Our team reached out anyway, cautiously optimistic.
Pabu’s owners were desperate to find him. Their other ferret was also missing him terribly.
“I cannot begin to describe how much we love this creature and how afraid I felt for his life,” Pabu’s owner said.
She got the call and rushed to the shelter. When she saw him, she instantly knew it was her Pabu, recognizing him by his distinctive gait. After two weeks on his own, Pabu returned home, successfully reunited with his sibling and loving family.
“He is so happy to be home, and our family feels whole again,” she told our staff. “You’re amazing, I can’t tell you how grateful we are.”
Pabu’s story was a part of our 2025 September Match campaign. You can read more stories from the campaign, among others, in our Stories tag! And of course, you can always be a part of the mission and donate to support stories like these.
