Hello friends, After only a few months of running the shelter I'm going to have to shut down temporarily if not permanently. I was supposed to move into my new place 8/1/00, and did move a few things (my clothes, ferret supplies, ferret cages, cd's, paperwork, personal knick-knacks). At 11 am on 8/2/00, I woke up to a phone call saying that my new place had burned down. I had left two plastic trays from cages and one bag of ferret food on the stove. The power wasn't on yet so there should have been no worry for the burners to be on. Apparently (this is all theory at this point), one of the burners had accidentally been turned on when the apartment was being cleaned (not by me, by the apartment personel). The electric company must have come early to turn my power on (I know, I was shocked too!) at which point the burner came on and proceeded to start the fire. It gutted the entire place and ruined everything I had. Everything that wasn't ruined by the fire was ruined by smoke and water. My lease for my current home ends on 8/8/00, and at this point I have nowhere to go with 10 ferrets, 2 dogs, one rabbit and too many mice. I need help, and fast!! If there is anyone in my area that would be willing to take a pair of ferrets (Hobbie and Opal, info is on my website) or a shelter shock sick female, please contact me!!! I would prefer for another shelter to take these three since Opal is a problem biter and Althea is having to be hand fed every four hours and is also on meds. I would try to keep them, but I'm barely going to be able to care for my own animals at this point. I'm afraid that I'm going to have to find homes for the dogs too, but my personal ferrets aren't going ANYWHERE!!! Noone will separate me from them!!! I am still kind of in shock over this whole thing and don't really know what to do since I'm afraid that they're going to try to blame me for it. It obviously wasn't my fault (why would I be trying to cook in a dark apartment without any electricity or pots or pans or food?!?!?), but I still think they are going to try to find some way to put it off on me. Over $50,000 in damage was the estimate that I heard. I can't believe I'm doing this, but if anyone would be willing to buy some ferret food or supplements for me through the ferret store, it would be greatly appreciated!! All of my ferret supplies were burned up except for the small amount of food that I was using. Here's the list of what I know for sure was burned up: ear cleaner, lots of ferretvite, lots of ferretone, tomlyn ferret drops, nupro, collars and leashes, ferretlax, 3 cages, bitter apple, syringes for feeding, lots of treats, lots of litter boxes, 20 lbs of the ferret store ferret food, and all of my cleaning supplies. I honestly couldn't give numbers on how many of each thing I had since it was all thrown in boxes for the move. All of my dishes were destroyed, all of my clothing except for two outfits, all of my cd's....I know, I'm being repetitive. I'm sorry. My mind is kind of swimming right now. I HATE asking for help because I don't like putting other people out...but this is for the ferrets. I don't feel like I have anyone else to turn to right now. If anyone would like to make any donations for the ferrets, please email me for the address or look at my website. I'm so sorry to ask for help as I never imagined that I would be doing this. I am going to update my webpage tomorrow so that everyone knows what is going on. If they put an article online about the fire, I will post it so that noone thinks this is bs. I truly appreciate all of the help that I've received in the past and any help that I may receive in the future!! Thanks you all so much for listening and helping!! I know I would do the same for all of you!!! dooks and kisses, Kim NRV Exotic Animal Shelter/Rescue http://www.geocities.com/nrvexotics/ [log in to unmask] [Posted in FML issue 3133]