Greetings,
 
Time for some positive news from NZ...
 
Three days, three hundred and fifty kilometres, very little sleep, wet
weather and very little time for caffeine fixes - not my idea of fun.
However we survived.
 
To say the first combined Ferret PAWS Wellington / Little PAWS shelter
Expo presence was a success is an understatement.  It was an overwhelming
success!  I can honestly say, hand on heart, that I thought our stand was
one of the best at the event and that is including the commercial stands!
Great site location (apart from carting gear to the site), great
presentation, eight people and about a dozen ferrets made it a very
memorable weekend.
 
Having so many helpers and ferrets meant we got to do so much more one
on one education (actually one on many, but you know what I mean) and we
were one of less than a handful of exhibitors to actually have animals
out available for people to pat and (shock horror) hold.  We had four
ferrets available at all times and all the resting ferrets available for
observation and people available to answer questions.  Many of the children
actually ditched their parents to come back to the ferrets!  (some multiple
times!) We drummed up a lot of support for our petition to halt the
potential banning of our beloved pets, getting 801 signatures, got a
number of serious adoption enquiries and literally hundreds of educational
leaflets were issued.
 
Lots of helpers and good planning (despite the tight timeframe) were
pivotal to our success.  An eleventh hour arrival of 3 Fuzzie Fanatics
and 11 ferrets from Christchurch and another from Wellington Central added
to the chaos (in a good way!) and for their support we are very grateful.
Personally their support lifted my spirits no end.  So to you Meghan,
Richard, Gill and Felicity a Warm Fuzzie thank you.  Warm Fuzzie thanks
as well to our local volunteers, Jimmy and Erin and special thanks to
chief organiser Colleen.
 
It was a long hard weekend, but it was a blast!
 
-David
 
David Holender
The Open Polytechnic Of New Zealand
+64 (04) 560 5760
 
Foundation member of Ferret PAWS (NZ) Inc.
http://www.geocities.com/Heartland/Village/9074/
[Posted in FML issue 3431]