Dear Taxpayers,
 
To all you who may be working on filing out your Form 1040, et al, I look
back and compare how well Ferrets NorthWest did in the previous tax year of
1998 and compare that to the taxable income to be reported for fiscal year
1999.
 
I don't want to bore you with all the figures on my Schedule C, but what
I'd like to brag a little bit about is the largest boarding fee ever that
has been received by any ferret shelter here in the Seattle area, and as
far as I know, any ferret shelter in the entire USA.
 
So pardon me for beating my own drum., but here goes:  BOOM  BOOM  BOOM!
 
Back in early August a nice lady and her husband came to FNW and requested
that her 12 lovely ferrets be boarded until the end of August and maybe
into early September.  This was the first time such a large contingent of
ferrets were to be boarded and I welcomed the challenge.
 
We together filled out the FNW Boading Form, which I'm looking at now as I
type out the posting, figured the cost at $900 or more if the 12 ferrets
were to be boarded 19 days instead of the anticipated 17 days.  Of course
there would be an additional slight fee for ferret food for these 12
ferrets during their stay at FNW.  The owner of the ferrets signed the
boarding agreement and wrote down her address, phone number, and her
preferred ferret vet, Dr. Skip Nelson.
 
I must admit I felt honored that this woman held FNW in high enough regard
to put her 12 ferrets into my charge at a rate of $4 per day per ferret,
not an unreasonable charge.
 
When the ferrets were picked up on the 2nd of Sept, the total bill came to
$941, this the largest ferret boarding fee I've received.  Let me tell you,
I worked hard for that money.
 
Yet I felt two emotions: one, I hated to see the ferrets leave because thay
were all "special" to me after being here for 19 days and nights, and two,
in one sense I was relieved to get them back to the current Director of the
Washington Ferret Association, all in good health and happy.  She, the
owner, was also very, very happy.
 
So if anybody can beat that record, please let's hear it.  Beat the record
boarding fee of $941.  Ah, yes that was a good year, 1998; the best since
Ferrets NorthWest FNW got started back in 1981.
 
Perhaps some of the other ferret shelters could earn income for the shelter
by setting up boarding services for ferret owners who are going on business
trips or vacations.  Ferret boarding is not the eaiest way to help finance
a shelter, but it's better than any other service I know Ferret breeding,
both spermic and aspermic comes in second.
 
Thank you all for a good year,
Edward Lipinski
Ferrets NorthWest FNW.
[Posted in FML issue 3019]