Hello and Welcome to AFA's 2008 Shows and Special Events!

I hope you had a great holiday season! I can't believe that 2007 is
over. Where did the year go?! And now the time is fast approaching
for AFA's first show for the 2008 season.

AFA has four events lined up for 2008 that it sanctions and hosts. The
first show is the 2008 Spring Nationals to be held on March 29, 2008
in York Pennsylvania. This is a well attended show and everyone looks
forward to the 2007 year end award presentations for Adolescent Ferret
of the Year, Alter Ferret of the Year, Breeder Ferret of the Year and
Companion Ferret of the Year. In March of 2009 we will be adding an
awards banquet the Friday night before the show. We are very excited
to be adding this prestigious event to formally recognize the award
winners. You can find the show packet for Spring Nationals on the AFA
website at www.ferret.org/events/shows.html

The next event for AFA in 2008 is AFA's Ferret Breeder Symposium:
Breeding Better Ferrets. This day and a half event will be held on
June 20 & 21, 2008 and will feature a leading authority on the subject.
AFA is proud to introduce Dr. Carmen Battaglia, world renown speaker
and author of Breeding Better Dogs. Dr. Battaglia will take a highly
sophisticated, scientific and technical subject like genetics and make
it not only easy to understand but even fun. He will be tailoring the
material he developed for dog breeders specifically for ferret breeders
in order to provide an easy method for comprehending genetics and
analyzing pedigrees. In addition to Dr. Battaglia, on Friday, we are
having a session on ferret reproduction issues headed up by a well
known ferret veterinarian and ferret breeder, Dr. Ruth Heller. Be
sure to bring your ferret repro questions, this is the place to have
them answered! Friday will also feature a session on nutrition - for
breeding hobs, for breeding jills, and kits during their critical
growth period. We will also touch on tips and tricks for successful
kit hand raising. This symposium is being held in the world renown
Wintergreen Resort and Spa located near Charlottesville, Virginia.
Everyone is welcome from non-breeder looking to find out what it's all
about to the seasoned ferret breeder. AFA Breeder Members will get a
discount on registration fees. Look for the registration packet on the
AFA website soon!

The third event for AFA is the 2008 Frederick Dooktoberfest Show to be
held in Frederick, Maryland on October 18, 2008. 2007 was the first
year for this show and it was such a smash that the Wild Weezil Women
on Wine have decided to do it again. The 2007 show raised over $4000
for the Mongo Memorial Canine Distemper Titer Study Fund. We will once
again be picking a great and worthy cause to be the recipient of the
proceeds from this show.

AFA's final event is the 2008 Winter Nationals show to be held in York,
Pennsylvania on December 5 & 6. This will once again be a shopping and
seminar event on the 5th and the title class and specialty show on the
6th. This is always one of the (if not the) largest shows in the
country for the year. The seminar lineup hasn't been set yet - if
you would like to see or hear someone special, please let us know at
[log in to unmask]

AFA would like to also thank our sponsors. Ferret Depot, ZuPreem and
Ferret.com have signed on to be sponsors for each of our four events.
We are really excited to have these great companies continue to support
the AFA and AFA's events. Eight In One Pet Products has signed on to
sponsor Spring and Winter Nationals. Eight In One has been a committed
show sponsor of the AFA for many, many years. Bowtie Press/Ferrets
has signed on to just sponsor Spring Nationals. They have also been
dedicated show sponsors for the AFA. Once again I would like to thank
each of them for their continued generosity and support. We could not
do what we do for ferrets without them.

Vickie McKimmey

Director of Shows and Special Events
American Ferret Association, Inc.
www.ferret.org

[Posted in FML 5883]