Sue, I am not saying you do not have valid points,in fact you do, but some times you have to look at things from several points of view, some days baby food and ad may be a time saver, some days time is the more precious item. Some days I cheat, I don't have the time to make my version of duck soup, but the kids get good stuff in it anyway. I have adopted ferrets to people accross the United States, the difficulty in that is making sure that they are in a good home, and will be cared for the rest of their life. Everyone I adopted to I trust to care for the ferrets, and in case some Act of God happens, they have things arranged that the ferrets will be cared for and not sent to some unsuspecting shelter. If you adopt to people who are accross country, you run the risk of the animal ending up in another shelter, someone taking on your responsibility. Every ferret adopted from here is adopted with the owner knowing that if they no longer want the ferret or can care for the ferret it comes back here. And it will hold water in the legal system. I accept the responsibility for each ferret that passes through this door. Believe it or not, sometimes bad things happen to good people. Like the couple who adopted a pair, and 1 year later the husband was killed in an accident, because of the contract, the ferrets were returned to the shelter. It is good you bring up this frustrations, maybe through civil (?) discussion we may be able to help all shelters deal with problems like shortage of time, over crowding, and shortage of funds. Happiness is finding a home for a ferret that was over looked for two years because of his age. Happiness is the first kiss from an abused ferret. Happiness is having an old fart fert. Happiness (and loneliness) is having all the shelter kids in good homes. Hugs to all. Jean Ferrets Unlimited Ferret Shelter [Posted in FML issue 3169]