Hola,

A while ago Renee Downs posted a link about 4 girls who gave a lot to
various charities, however, their parents did not deem a ferret shelter
a good place to contribute to. I wrote them and they finaly wrote back.
These girls deserve a huge round of applause, as do their parents. It
is good to know that there are good kids in the world, and these ones
are history makers, world changers!!

Here is the letter I wrote to them and their reply.

Good Morning Ladies!!

Let me start by saying how very proud I am of you!! You guys are
difference makers. You see a need and try your best to address it.
That, in my book, puts you way up there on the human decency scale
and I just want to say thank you.

I also love that you give every other donation to an animal group. They
are often God's most forgotten creatures and need all the help we can
give them. It is only a misdemeanor in most states to abuse or abandon
an animal. They are truly dependant on us to live a good life with
plenty of food, water, shelter and love.

I was saddened to read in an article that for some reason a ferret
shelter was not deemed a reasonable place to donate. These little
animals now represent the third largest pet population in the United
States. They are not wild and have been domesticated for over 3,000
years. Due to human greed and large scale farming of these animals to
supply pet stores, these guys have a very rough start in life and many
don't make it. They are weaned from their mothers at age 3 to 4 weeks
(too young) when they are taken to be spayed and neutered (too young).
From there they are shipped out without food or water in large groups,
housed in flat crates, in temperature extremes of all kinds. They
arrive at a pet store where they are given hard kibble to eat and a
good percent of them cant eat the hard kibble and starve. From there
they are purchased by folks who think they are a pocket pet with little
to no intelligence and they are kept in a cage for their entire life.
It is actually a good thing when a ferret is taken to a ferret shelter
and not sentenced to a life time in a small cage with no human
interaction, no playtime, no medical care, no mental stimulation and no
love. Unfortunately the shelters are now over run with ferrets. Many
have to house and care for well over 50 to 100 ferrets. Because they
are still considered exotic animals ferret shelters have very little
chance of getting any grants or help from the government or communities
and rely totally on donations. Sadly, most ferret shelters are run out
of the operator's pockets with many ferrets waiting for needed
surgeries etc. Everyone's help is greatly needed.

I also have to admit that I think the tamzmanian devils was a worthy
donation. Any species that is dying at the rate they are needs help. We
do not need to lose an entire species to extinction.

Again, I totally think ya'll are heroes and are going to grow up to be
the very best of the best. I applaud all that you are doing to make a
difference in your world.

Thank You

Karen Douglas

Their reply:

Ms. Douglas,
Thank you so much for your e-mail. We are deffinatly donating to a
ferret shelter and even are looking into volunteering there. Thank
you for your concerns.

        Your Four Friends,
    Shanon Maria Jessie and Devin

Hope this lifted your heart and day as it did mine. These ladies do
have a web page if you want to contact them. I am unsure if it is
 .org, .com or .net but I am pretty sure it is www.4lifesavers.com.

Karen

[Moderator's note: Looks like
http://www.4flavoredlifesavers.com
is the address you were looking for.  BIG]

[Posted in FML 5444]