Dear ferret folks!
 
SunFerret Shelter & Rescue has depended upon your gracious donations of not
only money, but food, hammocks, medications, etc., to keep our shelter
afloat and without them we would not be able to continue to help the
ferrets that come into our shelter who not only require basic care, but
surgery for illnesses as well as spay/neuter and medications.  For your
support we thank you wholeheartedly and pray that it will continue.
 
Currently, we are in need as our bank account is dangerously low (under
$300) and we are still in debt for vet bills in excess of $1000.  Our
shelter has taken in 8 ferrets in the past few months, and although this is
not a great number, for our small shelter it exceeds what we normally have
in terms of flow into and out of our shelter.  Three of these ferrets had
to be neutered and the owners check for $60 that covered the surrender fee
bounced (it was written on a closed account) and of course they are no
longer at the address they gave us.  In addition, it cost $60 per ferret to
have them spayed, plus $35 per ferret to update vaccinations (they never
had any), so we are out of pocket $375 for these three alone.  We did
manage to find them a home through another shelter, but the adopters have
not paid the adoption fee for which we asked only that they cover the cost
of neutering the ferrets by sending payment directly to our vet.  As of
yet, our vet has not received the fees and it has been over a month now, so
I'm assuming we'll have to fight to get it.  Obviously, we will no longer
accept this form of adoption and will ask for the fee directly in the form
of a check made out to our vet.  We will also have to check for fund
availability before any ferret is adopted out.
 
As you can see, we are in the whole and getting deeper, so we need your
help.
 
Totally Ferret has been gracious enough to donate 18 cases of Totally
Ferret Food to our shelter, with one condition.  They ask that we pay for
shipping which costs $294.  We can obviously use the donation, but due to
lack of funds to pay for the shipping we won't be able to accept it without
help.  We are asking if there is anyone out there who would be willing to
donate in part or in whole the funds to pay for it.  We know it is a large
amount of money for any one person, but are hoping that perhaps several
individuals might get together and pool their money into a larger single
donation.
 
If you are willing to do so, please send your donation to SunFerret Shelter
& Rescue PO Box 443 Ferndale, CA 95536-0443  Attn.: Totally Ferret shipping
fund.
 
We are also in need of hammocks which seem to wear out or disappear
quickly, since the ferrets that are adopted out go with any "gear" that
they have.  The best one's seem to be those made with the arctic fleece
and attached to strong metal closed hook type closures.  Unfortunately,
those made with string closures tend to either fall off in the wash or
the strings are chewed in half by many of the ferrets, turkeys that they
can be.
 
Again, we want to thank everyone who has so graciously donated to our
shelter in the past.  We look forward to your continued support in the
future!
 
Sincerely,
 
Suni Parker
SunFerret Shelter & Rescue
[Posted in FML issue 2734]