Hi, Wonderful Ferret People!
 
It's been a L O N G time since I posted... probably since my wonderful
Dodger's death in early January... well, with the exception of pleas for
help on behalf of Ferrets Across America.
 
I have to tell all of you - and this is long overdue so those of you who
volunteered (and you know who you are!) please forgive me - I had the most
incredible experience as Coordinator of Ferrets Across America.  I spent
about 2 months working with volunteers from Reno, NV to Richmond, VA in
order to get 6 New Zealand kits to their new homes.  Well, 2 of them made
it to Phoenix via Delta Dash, so I really didn't have a big hand in that
although we almost had it figured out how to get them there by car.
 
The other 4babies were helped by the following people (and this was a few
months ago so I'm straining my brain here) :-P
 
Joe in Nevada, Suzanne in Utah, Jessica in Utah, Cathy in Utah (thx for the
cage!!) Suzanna in Colorado, Lynda in Kansas, Bob in Missouri, Judy in
Illinois, Julie in Ohio and Linda in Ohio.
 
Thanks to those wonderful people (and I leave out their last names & cities
in the interest of their privacy since they don't know I'm posting this), 4
babies got wonderfully loving homes; Claudia in Utah, Sheila in Kansas,
Charlie in Illinois and Dakota in Virginia.  I think of them quite often -
"'hope they're doing GREAT!!"
 
Now, when I say these volunteers are "WONDERFUL", don't make the mistake of
thinking that I am exaggerating.  They endured long distance bills, housed
the ferrets for several days at a time (which, in some cases, presented a
whole NEW set of "issues" for their existing babies, just knowing others
were in the same house!), drove many hours from home and spent overnights
in hotel rooms.  Some of them did this despite other commitments, illness
and terrible driving conditions.  They received NO compensation other than
knowing that they were making a ferret's life better.  From start to
finish, this transport took 2 months to complete.
 
For any of you who may still doubt that there are angels watching over
ferrets, these people were Angels On Earth and I will never change my
position on that.  They were AWESOME.  I can't tell you how much I admire
their selflessness and their generosity to this very day.
 
Unfortunately, my career has interrupted my extracurricular time (don't
ya' hate that?), and since May I've not been able to Coordinate for FAA.
In fact I resigned from the position in the hopes that FAA's founder, Kym
Barone, could fill it with someone who DID have the time that this
wonderful program needs and rightfully deserves.
 
On almost a daily basis I receive wonderful words of praise for FAA (which
I can't accept because I didn't found FAA - Kym did and she is one GREAT
lady).  with them I receive the accompanying requests for transport that I
just can't tackle, although I desperately wish that I could.
 
I don't know what to advise those of you who are in need of transports for
your babies.  Other than the standard "PLEASE PROCEED WITH GREAT CAUTION
WHEN INVESTIGATING YOUR FERRETS' TRAVEL OPTIONS", I can only hope that
someone out there will go to the FAA web site
(http://www.ferretrescue.com/faa.htm)
and let Kym know, by filling out the volunteer form, that you can help to
Coordinate.  Let me tell you (as Kym told me); it's not for the faint of
heart.
 
To those of you who've sent requests for transport, please accept my most
sincere apologies.  If you're upset with me, you are welcome to e-mail me
directly but please don't clutter the list.  My inability to help doesn't
have anything to do with FAA itself or with Kym Barone, it was a personal
decision and one that was not easy to make.
 
To those of you who've been understanding about my inability to help, I
humbly Thank You and hope that others extend similar Grace to you.
 
Well, the fuzzies are trying to hypnotize me into letting them out for
playtime... and it's working!  That's something that you DO make time
for.  ;->
 
God bless each of you and much health to you & your babies...
 
Melissa Sutton,
proud mom to Dexter, Cocoa, MoJo, RockStar, MacDaddy, Fluffy & (our
Wonder Foster Ferret from SFFC&R) Cosmo!
>^V^<-,---------------,'''''''''''''
[Posted in FML issue 2754]