Wow. All I can say is wow. You know, shelter moms and dads have a LOT
on their plate. A LOT. I'm one of the lucky ones who has a bunch of
volunteers helping but there are many out there that don't have that at
all. Plus, they live somewhat of a life outside the shelter worrying
about kids, grand kids, husbands/wives, work, illnesses, disabilities
money for themselves/the ferrets and MUCH more.

PLEASE, please secret Santas, be patient for your thank yous. While
there may be some ignorant people out there that may not send a thank
you, MANY of us shelter folk are VERY busy and quite overwhelmed with
our day to day tasks and though you haven't been thanked in a timely
fashion, your shelter will thank you. It's only been a few weeks after
the holidays. Please give your shelter a break. Unless you live the
life, you don't know. AND for the other shelters who are bad mouthing
the rest of the shelters, please stop. You have no idea what is going
on in their shelters or their lives. Every shelter is different and
every operator is different. We all do the best we can manage to do and
some of us aren't super heroes. Please remember that next time you post
about how bad other shelters are for not getting their thanks in on
time.

I can speak for FAS in saying that only one or two people actually
enclosed their e-mail address in the box they sent. One lovely lady
even snail mailed a note to our shelter BEFORE they sent the box out
to let us know we were picked. Santas, please make sure your e-mail
address is included in your boxes. If you don't have e-mail for
whatever reason, make sure your address is in a letter IN the box (and
then be patient, it takes more than a split moment to get a card and
write a thank you in it). I think it's a great idea to make sure this
is something done next year. I would have loved to send an e-mail to
everyone who sent a box but since I didn't have addresses, I posted to
the FML and also sent cards (when I had a complete return address to
send to).

Please don't be offended if you don't get a thank you. I know it's hard
because a Thank You is the least we shelter folks should be giving you
but please be patient. Thank yous are on the way and your shelter
operators may just be overwhelmed as this second in time. There is no
way to portray what it feels like to be overwhelmed but I hope you can
understand, overwhelmed is something that most shelter people feel on
a daily basis.

Thanks again to all of The FAS Santas and we hope you liked/will like
the cards you get from your "adopted" ferrets. And to those Santas who
didn't and will never get their thanks, *I* want to thank you for your
kindness. It's only because of Santas that shelter ferrets get
Christmas. So thank you to EVERY SINGLE person who signed up for the
giving tree and became an instant Santa. You may not know it or feel it
right now, but you are loved. I want to thank you, on behalf of EVERY
shelter ferret for doing what you did. You all ROCK!!!! Thanks for
being you!

Miss Randy Melanie Belair
President
The Ferret Aid Society
<http://www.ferretaid.org/>

Join the IFC Ferret Aid list! Get the info FIRST!
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Ferret Aid 2006 photos
http://www.ferretaid.org/events/ferret_aid_2006.html

[Posted in FML 5483]