Bill G, I hope you will let this through as it important to our survival.
[Sure, why wouldn't I let it through?  BIG]
 
I am going to start from the beginning.  A little over two years ago, I
had a lady who boarded her ferret here and didn't come back for months.
By the terms of my boarding contract, any ferret left more than 30 days
without paying the boarding, or at least calling to check on the ferret, is
considered abandoned and becomes the property of the shelter.  six months
later, the ferret was still here and the girl drops in to see if he was
still at the shelter and we worked something out so she could work off her
boarding and get her ferret back.  she wouldn't show up when scheduled and
was always sick and once brought in some kind of sickness that infected 58
ferrets.One of her boyfriends told us I asked her to leave until she was
well and not to come back.  A week later, she came back in and said she was
no longer infected or contagious and wanted to do some data entry.  I said
ok ,just don't handle any ferrets to be safe.  !5 minutes later, there she
was sitting on a chair, holding Harvey and I asked leave and not to ever
come back.  She said her boyfriend worked for the city and she would see to
it that he shut us down.  Since then, he has been citing us for every
little petty thing on the books.  Including stuff he has never seen, just
heard about from our web site.  As for complaint from my neighbors, none of
them dislike us and the city has failed to produce any written complaints
from my neighbors.  They are constantly making inconsistent statements ,
especially recently on TV.  The summons says they are dragging us into
court for storing furniture on my front porch.  chairs to sit on is all
that out there, along with a working pop machine and a file cabinet we use
for records.  It is kept clean and presentable and there are other houses
in my neighbor hood that are way more out of compliance than us.  On TV,
they say it is because we have volunteers come in to help here at the
shelter, board ferrets, and have ferretland out back.  Volunteers are
crucial to the survival of every animal shelter, boarding helps raise money
for the shelter, and they have never even seen Ferretland nor any traffic
that it may cause because Ferretland was only open two months last year and
has been closed due to waether since Oct.  2000.
 
I resent Mr. Issaac using his city given authority to harass us and am
willing to fight this out in court or wherever they want this to end up.
Many people have sacrifice to make Especially Ferrets Inc.  the largest
Ferret shelter and rescue in the country and still the only licensed one in
Colorado.  By the way, Last year we rescued or took in as surrenders 549
ferrets, and adopted 650 out to good homes.  We had more than 3000 ferrets
visit us here for one reason or another.  Our business hours are from 9am
to 7pm 7 days a week and we haven't heard any complaints from our neighbors
or freinds of our neighbors.  We go to local schools and churches with our
ferrets and save many folks from evictions due to ferret, relationships and
ferrets and frequently have many groups in our shelter learning about
ferrets for the first time.  We are city licnsed, State licensed and a 501
( c ) 3 non-profit charity.  We are doing everything we can to survive and
still get bigger and eventually want to move the shelter out of our home,
where Gloria and I have lived in a 12X14 bedroom for 6 years now while
giving up the rest of the house to the shelter.  Every agency who has had
contact with us, thinks we are wonderful except for just two people, Mr.
Issaac and his supervisor.  The court date is March 20th at 8am.  Anyone
who can attend, please do.  It shouldn't take long and if can't attend,
Please write to the court.  the address is
 
Municipal Justice Center
15001 East Alameda Drive
Aurora, Colorado  80012
Attn Case Z 04361
 
Thank you all for your help.  We may need a lawyer so some of you out their
with friends that can afford one, let them know incase they would like to
help.  Also of note, the mayor of Auroras phone number is 303-739-7015 and
his fax is 303-739-7594 in case you all wanted to know.
 
Thanks for any help again.  and hugs to all the fuzzies,
Ferretguy
[Posted in FML issue 3357]