His tiny pink nose sniffing the air and eyes drooping with sleep, Ollie the ferret seemed blissfully unaware yesterday of how much ruckus he has raised recently.

"I just wanted to get Ollie back," Rosemarie Maracich said as she cuddled her pet outside the Freeport Animal Shelter.

Maracich, a Fairfield, Conn., special events director, consulted lawyers and launched an Internet campaign for the return of her ferret, who went missing on Feb. 23 -- and who was legally adopted out by the shelter when the owners didn't find him within a state-mandated five-day waiting period.

While Maracich and her partner Shay MacInnis were away on vacation, a friend who was pet-sitting Ollie discovered that he had escaped her Long Beach apartment.

In the ensuing search, Ollie was traced to the Freeport shelter, where he had been fostered by Ashley Ferrara, 18, a Nassau Community College student and shelter volunteer. After the waiting period was up, Ferrara adopted Ollie and renamed him Juan.

Ferrara initially refused to return the ferret to Maracich, because she didn't know if he would be returning to a good home, she said.

But Ferrara changed her mind when a customer at the pet store where she works mentioned how much Maracich and MacInnis love Ollie.

Yesterday, Ferrara stood by in tears while Maracich nuzzled Ollie's face.

"I think they made us look bad when I was just doing the right thing," Ferrara said later. "I didn't do it because I was greedy."

Stephanie Cieslik, the shelter's director, said she was most upset at the petitions that have sprung up online, demanding a boycott of the no-kill, nonprofit shelter.

"Boycotting here doesn't hurt me. It doesn't hurt her," she said, gesturing to Ferrara. "It hurts the animals."

Cieslik leaned against a cage holding a dozing cat. "It's about these guys," she said, and with a sigh added that she hopes the controversy is over.

Ollie's first day back with his owners will be capped with a party at the very same Long Beach apartment from which he escaped, Maracich said.

"We're just going to celebrate a little bit," she said. "It's amazing we even found him."