Have I ever helped you?
 
I was just thinking.
 
Steve and I have been in a very restricted situation ever since AT&T
Research (before the break-up Bell Labs where he was a Distinguished
Member of Technical Staff) stopped doing any new thinking ahead because
Steve and some friends are busy trying to get Omenti, their business,
off the ground, and starting a business is always an extremely expensive
endeavor.  We have savings for emergencies (human and ferret), and for
retirement, and we keep our expenses carefully in line by keeping the
numbers of ferrets few and by doing without some things we'd like.
 
Something we strongly mind, though, is the loss of our ability to give
heavily to improving ferret veterinary research so that ferret veterinary
care can continue to improve.
 
It strikes me that perhaps those among you whom I have helped over the
years can give something, maybe not now for all of you, and perhaps not
much, and maybe not at all if you are also supporting a shelter.  Still,
I know that my putting in 20 to sometimes over 40 hours each week helping
people and vets get medical care info has helped people.
 
I would like to ask that if you have been helped that you give a donation
of at least $5 to the Morris Animal Foundation.  If my help was worth
more to you then when you can afford it, please, give more.  If a
donation is small they will put it into the General Fund, but if it is
larger (I think $25 or above) you can specify that it should be used
toward your choice of animal other than ferrets, or toward Domestic
Ferret health studies, or health studies to benefit either the Domestic
Ferret or the Black Footed Ferret.  If you can give in the four to five
figures you may find yourself able to be a study sponsor, depending on
how expensive the study happens to be.
 
I feel safe mentioning the MAF partly because we have had a long
background with them, and partly because we know that their
Administrative costs are already covered so 100% of your donation will
go toward benefiting the animals themselves by helping get needed work
done, and partly because they carefully peer review any projects applying
for grants and any qualified researcher with a well designed project can
obtain funding *if the funding is there to obtain*.
 
We so often here talk about the need to have further research into topics
which some vets are tackling on their own dimes or that a subject needs
to have some research start into it (from the new mystery illness/DIM;
to the use of medical approaches like Lupron, Suprelorin, and melatonin
(or complete darkness) in ferret adrenal health; to the carbohydrate
hypothesis in relation to insulinoma; to whether ferrets with neural
crest variant markings have KIT oncogene and increased vulnerabilities
as a result; to whether ferret lines have MEN, Multiple Endocrinological
Neoplasia genetic vulnerabilities; to medical approaches for cardiac
problems; to new chemo advances, etc.)..  Heck, no one even knows the
actual percentage of ferrets who get insulinoma, and the numbers vary
widely from household to household.  It is obvious that funding such work
could help our ferrets and help us all.
 
20 years ago almost nothing was known about ferret health.  Now, because
people have given -- both ferret people and vets -- there has been a huge
amount learned in just 2 decades, but there are still so many gaps.
 
Please, if any of my posts or any of my replies have helped you,
please, please, help advance the research that will continue to
improve conditions for our well loved ferrets and also by extension
for ourselves.
 
Here is the contact information for the Morris Animal Foundation.  Tell
them that Sukie Crandall sent you or include this note!
 
Morris Animal Foundation
 45 Inverness Drive East
 Englewood, CO 80112
 phone: (800) 243-2345
 local: (303) 790-2345
 fax: (303)790-4066
 
People so often ask me what they do -- where they can give to help.
I wish I'd thought of posting this earlier in the last few years.
 
Have I ever helped you?
[Posted in FML issue 4847]