I have several questions/comments relating to the topic of shelter policies and the minimum time ferrets are in a shelter before being adopted. I think it is very important to fully evaluate the health and personality of ferrets before they are matched up with new owners and I think that takes at least 2-3 weeks. I have personally seen that a ferrets' true personality does not always emerge until it has "settled" in, often taking at least 2 weeks. I also feel most comfortable with adopting to individuals that are willing to wait until the ferret they are interested in is ready to leave. I'd appreciate any comments regarding the following questions and statements. 1. I realize there are sometimes unusual circumstances where an arrival would not need to go through a quarantine period, but in general, if a shelter is maintaining the recommended quarantine time for new arrivals (1-2 weeks) how can they let someone take a ferret home before that quarantine period is finished? 2. How can a ferret be evaluated for its response to other ferrets until after it is out of quarantine? This means keeping the ferret at least a bit longer than the minimum quarantine time. 3. Any ferret with an unknown vaccine history should be given the recommended series of 2 distemper vaccines, which means having the ferrets for at least 3 weeks, unless making special arrangements with the new owners to see that the second vaccine is given in the appropriate time span. 4. Are shelters that are testing for ADV requiring that those that adopt from them have all their ferrets tested for ADV before they can bring their ferrets to the shelter to find a new companion? If not, how are they dealing with that unknown source of contamination? Elayne Barclay Cascade Ferret Network Network Coordinator [Posted in FML issue 3026]