I'm writing in response to the person asking about fostering policies at
other shelters.  The Cascade Ferret Network in Portland, Oregon recently
lost its central location and has gone back to having all shelter ferrets
in foster homes, which was the original intent.  One of the advantages
of having foster homes is the cost savings of spreading the financial
responsibility of providing food and litter over many individuals who
only have to provide it for a limited number of ferrets.  CFN has always
hoped our foster homes would provide this, but if it would prevent an
otherwise good quality foster home from being a foster home, CFN has
supplied the food.  This has been the case primarily with college
students or those living on a fixed income source.  CFN pays for the food
if the ferret is on a special diet for health reasons, but many foster
homes help by paying for this themselves too.

Elayne Barclay
Cascade Ferret Network Coordinator
www.cascadeferret.org
[Posted in FML issue 5274]