Hi, everyone.
 
This may come as a shock to many of you since you have never heard
anything really negative come out of me or my shelter, but the stress of
running a shelter as well as trying to have a professional and personal
life has claimed my partner Judy.  She left the shelter.  I am now on my
own.
 
Judy and I have been looking for a third partner for about 2 years to
help take the strain off of us but the people we like tend to have 3
children and have soccer practice, baseball practice, dance class, etc.,
etc., etc.  The people who really want to help live so far away that
it makes it a logistical nightmare.  We tried staring a club,
"Ferret-A-Holics", in hopes of meeting new people, making new friends
and maybe finding just the right person(s) to help us, but that fell
completely flat and we terminated the club after 10 months due to
complete apathy in this area.
 
After eight years (or is it nine?) of doing shelter work, I am just about
ready to call it quits.  For all of you out there who are considering
starting a shelter, please learn from other people who are operating a
shelter or have done so in the past.  It is much more financially and
mentally stressful than you think.
 
I will try to keep this shelter alive for a while longer, but I cannot do
this alone.  I am not concerned about the money side of things.  I need
help with the actual work load.  I need someone (or a couple of people)
to take some of the ferrets I have to reduce my load.  As I said, we have
been looking for two years for that type of person/people and have had no
luck.  I only have 12 ferrets, but most of them hate each other and I
must have several separate play times each evening.  After many years of
doing this, it's just too much now.  (By "hate", I really mean "hate"/"I
want to kill you", which is different than the normal dominance
fighting.)
 
I will take this chance to thank all of the people who are about to
respond by saying "Hang in there", "you provide a great service", etc.,
but as of now, my mind is made up.  If I cannot find one or two
full-time, trustworthy partners, I will close the shelter on January 1,
2003.  There is a woman in Florence, AL (about 1 hour from here) who is
running a shelter.  She is too far away to be a Cloud Nine Ferrets
shelter partner, but maybe she will able to handle the needs of the north
Alabama region.  I will call her today and talk to her about it.  It's
funny that we only received our 501(c)(3) designation this year and now
I must close shop.
 
I will never completely be free of ferrets.  They have gotten "under my
skin" and I love them deeply.  I just can't operate a shelter by myself.
 
Thanks.  This is a great list and a great community.
 
-Mark Zmyewski, President
 Cloud Nine Ferrets, Inc.
 Huntsville, Alabama
[Posted in FML issue 3899]