First, I want to say, not for the last time, but one of them, to be
sure, as we are down to the wire, that there is still time to pick your
ferrets. Not to get them their gifts on time, but a gift certificate
will let the shelters know someone cares. Even a $5 gift certificate
combined with someone elses of the same amount will go a long way for
a shelter, so please consider it.

At the last count that we took, there are only twenty-some ferrets left
without Santas. That does not count page 42, which has nothing on it
as of this posting. We have done much better than last year, even with
pages coming out of left field. To any shelters left with ferrets who
have not gotten Santas by Christmas, I want to apologise. We have tried
our hardest. We have urged and cajoled, begged and pleaded and pretty
much bankrupted ourselves for the month as well picking ferrets. Please
know that there are alot of us out here who care for your and your
little charges a great deal, its just we care so much more than we
get paid or they would all be taken long ago...

We would like to thank the Santas'. People like Marie Cooper, who
cleared the California tree singlehandedly, and Marie in British
Columbia who is handling alot of the Canadian ferrets. Alot of people
have taken multiple ferrets, but to everyone who has picked even one,
thank you for your support- it means the world to these little ones to
have the goodwill of people like yourselves. There is a special place
for people like you, and it doesn't have a fireplace!

It does depress me more than a little to realize that there are more
than 3000 people on the FML, and that the giving tree link has been up
on multiple other lists, and still it isn't cleared. I'm not sure what
else it will take, but when a few people are taking multiple ferrets,
and alot of people are taking single ferrets, and a whole lot more
are doing nothing, it saddens me. If it was one of my ferrets in the
shelter I would hope someone would step up and help, but I'm not sure
that would be the case. I generally try to look more for the good in
people, and we still have time, maybe I will be suprised, but it takes
so much to get everyone motivated, the same everyone who would be
asking for help if their ferret were sick, that I am fighting some
depression every time I look at the tree.

Please, if you can spare even $5, go and get a ferret a gift
certificate. If 10 people do that, a shelter has $50 to work with, and
while the ferrets won't have Christmas presents on the day in question,
the shelters will know we cared enough not to leave anyone out- there
are just a few left now, we can do it, we just have to care enough to
do it........

~Gerri

[Posted in FML 6191]