I would like to commend those of you who have kept your cool during this discussion of "inexpensive ferrets". I have caught up on my fml's from the last few days and only see a couple of antagonists like T. Allen. Mr. Allen, with an attitude like yours, I really hope you don't open your mouth in public like you express yourself on the fml. You probably have had your nose broken many times if you do. From my perpsective, many good points were brought up. You all don't know how I got started in this business and became what may be the largest ferret shelter on the planet. Stephanie Scheme, who many of you may know, and runs a small rescue called Ferrets Etc., got me started by giving me ferrets for free. I had one ferret named Hilarious Harvey Horton, who was my best friend for 6 short years. He went everywhere with me. Stores, restaraunts, you name it, we went together. I joined Steph's ferret club, and I guess she was impressed with the way we treated Harvey. I started getting them from her two at a time for free until one day, I realized that between Steph and everyonew else who was just giving me ferrets, I had over 25 fuzzies in my crew and had better check into the laws to see if I had too many pets. Well, I did and needed to get a rescue permit from the state to keep them. I did that. Needing to learn more about my charges, I started picking everyone I could reach brains for more knowledge. Medical bills were killer. I hurt so bad when one of them died, that I decided then, I would never kill a ferret for any reason.(please no flames on this subject) To this day, every one who knows the ferretguy knows I will spend however many thousands of dollars it takes to get a ferret well. I have two ferrets in here now that were sent back to me to die from the vet after over a 1000 dollars of care.(that's with a 75% shelter disc) It been 2 weeks and they are still alive and gaining weight. Were those first few ferrets cheap or even free?? Not even close! It takes a bunch of healthy ferrets to compensate for one sick one. I thank Steph evry day and every way I can for those gifts she gave me. They will cost me every day for the rest of my life, and I will gladly pay any price for them as happiness and joy are priceless.Ask any of the thousands of families I have placed ferrets with. It's ok to want a better deal on a ferret as we also try to make ferret ownership more affordable. But even I get supicious when the first a person says is how much do they cost. Then I educate them on the high cost of maintaining ferrets and if they don't bat an eye, and they answer all the questions on the application, I go with it. For my long term clients who I know really well, I don't even hesitate to "give" yes, for free, any ferret that catches their eye, as I am sure they are going to a home that I want all my ferrets to be in. Hugs to all, Ferretguy [Posted in FML issue 3192]