Sorry I neglected to announce that the winner of the 2 Jeanne Carley
calendars and baseball cap for the bird sign-up for the Ferret Shelters
Directory Support Our Shelters sign up promotion that ended February
9th was Forget-Me-Not Ferret Resuce in Anchorage, Alaska run by Butch
and Debbie Sims. Congratulations! Their prizes are already on their
way.

Due to the number of strong storms and power outages, we've decided
to extend phase 2 of the sign up promotion by 1 week. So rather than
earning two entries toward the top two prizes through February 16th,
we are extending the date to midnight PST on February 23rd. The sign
up promotion ends Sunday March 16th as planned. Of course, shelters
can continue to sign up beyond that date.

For those wondering, what SOS and FACT will be doing is contacting
shelters on SOS's current list who have not registered by that date
and verifying if they still exist and helping those that do register.
We also have an extensive out-reach plan for ferret and multi-specie
shelters that are not on the SOS list.

As we indicated, it is NOT necessary for a shelter to have a public
profile.

The directory database has two purposes. In addition to having a public
profile for people to search, it is also going to become SOS's "behind
the scenes" source for maintaining information about US ferret
shelters. There is a completely private, DO NOT PUBLISH option for
those who have permanently closed their doors, but still want and/or
need to maintain connectivity to the ferret sheltering community and
the resources of SOS. Eventually, we hope this is also going to become
a portal for those who are considering opening a shelter but who have
not yet made that commitment.

In the meantime, thank you to all those shelters who have taken the
time out of their busy and important work to register. Feel free to
ask for help - it still may take us 24-48 hours to get to you - but
we will!

Ann Gruden
Ferret Association of Connecticut

[Posted in FML 8046]