Re:  The South Florida Club Photo Contest...
 
Hi there.  I know shouldn't post this... but I guess it doesn't matter
because no one could possibly beat my pictures... of Tarzan lounging like a
limp, redolent Buddha (in season from south view) - on his back, fat, arms
limp, double chin dropped, eyes shut, with a Mona Lisa smile...
 
... or my luscious ferret swirls, colorful fur of multiple fuzzies meshed
into one big candy swirl of a ferret set off against a lush red, shag rug
upon a vibrant sky-blue floor...
 
No, there's NO CONTEST... though it won't help my odds if more people enter
the South Florida Ferret Club and Rescue photo contest... but please do!
 
This contest is for an excellent cause - a shelter full of 130 adorable
ferrets, run by a really great couple, Angela and Johnny, who also run a
great store called "For Ferrets Only", which helps support the shelter and
where the $50 prize certificate for the first-place winner of the photo
contest will buy a lot of really great stuff, lots of it beautifully
handmade by Angela and club members!
 
The "For Ferrets Only" store is just that, for ferrets.  It's got a huge
romping area in the front window, filled with the neatest, most colorful
mostly handmade toys for ferrets I'd ever seen... with scads of plump, sassy
rescues romping about.  Among other things, Angela makes a marvelous hanging
tent (big rectangular affair called the "Cozy Cabooze") and club member
Carin Riley makes plush blankies (also being given away to third place
contest winner) in a huge spectrum of colors of which I bought three and put
in my color-coded townhouses where my fuzzies snuggle under them in their
hammocks.  I also got a beautiful, long (gracefully rump-covering), jet
black "For Ferrets Only" t-shirt, with a beautiful outline of a ferret in
white on the front...
 
This summer I attended a conference in Miami Beach, and posted that I'd like
to meet Florida ferret folk.  Active club member Carin Riley, not only wrote
me, but the rascal pursued me on phone, after I'd become ensconsed in my
conference.  She offered to pick me up one evening, and we visited "For
Ferrets Only" in Miami, met store owners/shelter operators Angela and
Johnny, and also met club member Michael Janke, who gave me a lovely club
t-shirt he'd hand imprinted with a great club logo.
 
Next we went to the shelter, at Angela and Johnny's home in Miami, where I
met each shelter kid personally (Angela knows each by name!).  They were
each so very sweet.  One, with hypothyroidism, the club mascot, was so huge
he could easly lie on his back and squirm around, which he did to his
apparent great glee (and our guffawing).  Another sweetheart had little
paralyzed hind legs which didn't stop her from following us about, and
Angela pointed out that she was even beginning to move her hind legs a bit!
My heart stopped for a tiny, blind, gal, named Robin, so small and sweet.
Another lady that tugged at my heart was an albino who had had a dog throw
her against a wall, leaving her head caved in so she runs about aimlessly,
but is still a little beauty, quite daft and probably happy.  One lady,
since passed away, was hugely fat due to eating her ex-owners tube of
estrogen... Many were normal and perky, just needing homes.  Angela had her
beautiful, handmade trappings - hammacks, sleep tubes, tents, blankets -
adorning each cage in color-coded splendor.
 
Then Angela, Johnny, and Carin took me out for the best sushi food I'd ever
had, and told me all about how the shelter (and Angela and Johnny's home)
weathered Hurricane Andrew.  The house was trashed but every fuzzy survived!
 
The love and great care these fuzzies receive is obvious.  But the need to
care for them is tremendous.  There are around 20 alone needing adrenal
surgeries!  Many have insulinoma and need many daily hand feedings.  Angela
devotes her days to them while Johnny goes out to bring home the bacon.  On
weekends they run the "For Ferrets Only" store to earn more money for the
shelter.  One service the store provides is organized classes for new (and
intermediate) ferret parents.  Ferrets are constantly being brought in to
the shelter.  Carin rescued three more in the week after I'd returned to
Seattle...
 
So please help out these great folks and give yourself a shot at some great
ferret gear, by entering a couple fuzzy photos in their contest.  At five
bucks an entry, you couldn't help out a better cause with a better potential
return!
 
I hear the entries are not filling up the shelter mailbox so please, show a
little of that old FML spirit and put yourself in line for some great
prizes.  And if you ever get out to Florida (say for the 10th anniversery
FML bash!) stop by and check out the shelter, meet the kids and some great
people and, better yet, give a sweet fuzzy a loving home!
 
Thanks for listening!
 
Lynn and the Gang of Seven Furzzies (as always, Squeek, Schroedee and Percy,
dancing over my head in the stars...)
 
P.S.  No, I don't have stock in the club; othewise I couldn't enter!!!!
But you can find out more about the contest by writing Carin Riley -- Rick
Riley <[log in to unmask]> -- or Michael Janke "Michael F. Janke"
<[log in to unmask]>.
 
And by the way, for those who took the time to read to the end - a little
reward.  Carin would probably kill me - if I weren't on the other corner of
the States - for telling you that, at 30, she became the oldest cheerleader
for the Miami Dolphins (or Dallas Cowboys; obviously no football fan here
since I can't remember which!) -- beating out scads of youngsters.  Of
course she's a tad bit older than that now :)p, which, I guess, makes her a
retired (and married) cheerleader for ferrets!  Go Carin!!!!
[Posted in FML issue 2100]