Dear BIG,

I'm just as computer stupid now as I was when a Rocky's volunteer set
one up in my home in 1998. Thank you for having me, for caring about
me and Rocky's all these years. You've saved my ass so many times, and
keeping it focused on ferrets...safe to say, literally thousands of
those furry critters have been saved and rehomed thanks to you and
the FML!

I was so scared to talk to...who?. . I just didn't get this internet
stuff. I'm an old lady today, but many years ago, and in hindsight, I
kind of relate it to when my family got it's first telephone. It had a
party line. Everyone could hear what was being said by just picking up
the phone. I was a young woman when I started this journey.

I've done many small and large scale rescues since joining the FML, I'm
not sure what year I joined. I just know that in 1995 I did a backyard
breeder rescue of 200 ferrets and it was just me. No internet. No FML
family. How in the world I vetted them and found homes makes me crazy
thinking about it. I don't know how,...word of mouth..but I did! Fast
forward....and they kept coming. My forte became rescue.

Once I found a home base of like-minded folks on the FML, I stayed
glued. There were more crazy ferret folks like me.

I continued to do rescue for many years, but I just didn't know I could
share, that I could reach out. ask for help.

On the FML. I learned so much that helped me as a ferret owner and as a
shelter op. The new and continued knowledge drove me to reach out and
rescue and shelter. Because of the FML I only then learned about how
great a need there was for what I was doing. But I so needed to learn
more and more and more, and the FML gave that to me, it was my only
source of valued information!

Many years later, 2003...I reached out for help. The Hagerstown Rescue
was documented in word and picture and the world was set afire with
what can happen with a breeder gone bad. I was able to chronicle the
entire event from day one to the very day the perpetrator was tried and
convicted, right here on the FML. The entire rescue, start to finish,
I shared on the FML. If you are to go back in the archives there are
wonderful accounts from those that rescued and adopted, showing how
hope can come from something so very horrendous. We were a team that
accomplished this rescue. I met the most wonderful folks that threw
everything aside to come and tent out here at Rocky's to work this
rescue. One of my most precious memories is a woman from South Carolina
that I'd never spoken to, came and stayed a week to triage and help
out. We are the most dear of friends to this day, Diane Campbell/Ferret
Guardian. So many friendships from all over the country happened
because of this network of rescuers. All happened because of the FML.

http://rockysferrets.org/rescues/hagerstown.html

Then a year later, a hoarder rescue. Again, the FML gave the the
members a window into the real world of what a ferret hoarder was, the
conditions, and the mercy and miraculous grace of loving these animals
and rehoming them. It also gave a venue for the rescuers to speak out.
The world got to see first hand the conditions of a ferret hoarder.

http://www.rockysferrets.com/rescues/abington43/abingdon43.swf

Those are just two of the dozens of rescues we here at Rocky's have
done. It's my calling, to do rescue. God as my judge, I know these
words are true. There is no way I could have done any of these rescues
without you, without the support of the members of the FML, without the
volunteers that found their way to Rocky's via the FML. Think about
this, Rocky's has done nearly 5,000.....FIVE THOUSAND rescues since
1995 because of you and the FML, each and every one of you. Each was
loved and cared for and rehomed, loved to their end. You who have
supported us throughout these years would never have heard about these
rescues, had it not been for the FML. The FML.

We're not done. There's still so much to be accomplished. Thank you
Bill Gruber for giving us a forum where we can focus, be contained and
organized and documented with our agendas. The FML, this where the cool
kids meet, talk it out, and work it.

Thanks Bill. Love ya bunches!

Affectionately,
Barb Clay
Dir of Shelter Affairs
Rocky's Ferret Rescue and Shelter
Parkton, MD 21120
www.rockysferrets.com

[Posted in FML 7648]