I wanted to take a moment to add a bit to Sam's post regarding any concerns
with Ferrets Across America.  As many of you know, I created the Ferrets
Across America program some time ago.  It is a huge, huge job, and it can
be really hard to deal with at times.  All the Coordinator wants to do is
to unite ferrets with owners, wherever that may be.  The program was wildly
successful, and pretty much embraced by the ferret community.  But with
every transport, there were some problems that arose, never anything that
would affect the safety of the ferrets - just problems in coordinating
everyone to where they must be and when.  It became too much for me to
handle effectively.  I had to turn down transports because I was afraid
that I would not be able to devote the time needed to successfully
transport the ferrets.  I work full-time, in addition to running my
shelter, which is my first priority, plus I am involved in a lot of other
ferret-related activities.  To best serve the needs of FAA, I resigned.
 
It's taken a long time until this program has come up and running since my
successor also resigned for similar reasons.  I have been trying to find
someone that would be terrific in running this program all along.  From the
beginning, I always thought that Sam would be a great person for the job,
but due to the fact that she resides out of the U.S., I never offered her
the job.  When she eventually approached me, I quickly agreed to let her
give it a shot.  Sam is now in charge of the FAA program, but I will
continue to advise her for as long as she needs me to help her out.
 
It does not matter at all that Sam doesn't live here when it comes to
running FAA.  When I ran it from here in Pennsylvania, I coordinated
transports on the west coast.  There's no difference between half a country
away and half a world away when you are coordinating transports via e-mail,
ICQ, and telephone.  She can do just as effective a job from there as I
could from here.  If a problem arose in Nevada when I was in PA, there was
nothing I could physically do about it (i.e., fly there) and the same goes
for Sam from New Zealand.
 
Furthermore, Sam will have something I never did - she is appointing State
Coordinators who will assist her in each transport.  If a transport is
going through three states, there will be three co-coordinators to help
her along.  This way, if there is a problem in any state, the state
co-ordinator will have a much better ability to help out than I would have
ten states away, or Sam, several countries away.  And for anyone who
doesn't know Sam, I will say this: she knows more people in the United
States than any other person I know.  She has the resources available to
handle this job better than even I ever could.  She works from home, she is
on her computer every waking hour of her day, she has access to her e-mail
at all times, and as many of us know, she *does* call the United States a
bit more than her phone bill likes to show!  :o)
 
I will end by saying that if I needed to have a ferret transported for any
reason, there really is no person that I know that I would trust more to
handle the trip than Sam.  She's really got a great plan in place for
Ferrets Across America, and I think she will be wildly successful at it.
I would entrust her, and hope that you all will do the same.
 
For more information about Ferrets Across America, please visit the FAA
site at: http://users.1st.net/hammock/ferrets/faa/
 
If you have questions about FAA you may e-mail Sam at [log in to unmask],
or if you have any concerns that you would like to ask me about, feel free
to e-mail me at [log in to unmask]
 
Kymberlie Barone
Director
Pennsylvania Ferret Rescue Association of Montgomery County
http://www.ferretrescue.com
[Posted in FML issue 2873]