Hi all, Alicia just posted regarding a request for help on Thursday nights. Let me share our experience. This has worked very, very well for me at Ferret Services of Freedom, as I work a full-time job approximately one hour away. Every Thursday night from approximately 5:30 p.m. until 7, a group of us get together to clean litter boxes and cages at the shelter. One washes boxes, another dries, and two work in the cage room cleaning cages. If there are others, they are put to work doing other chores (folding ferret laundry, brochures, etc). When we are just about finished with the chores, we place a call at our local pizza shop for subs or pizza. I send my hubby to get the subs while we finish up. When it arrives, we and eat and visit. We have been doing this for approximately one and a half years now with rarely a Thursday being missed. It's a great blessing to me to have such dedicated volunteers and it's a huge help to get it done in one night. A week night (it doesn't have to be Thursday) doesn't interfere with anyone's weekend. If you live close by and would like to join us on Thursday nights, come on up! We'd love to have you! Regarding volunteering, I recently read an article in our local paper about the statistics of charitable giving in the USA. NH is financially well-off compared to some other states. However, our charitable giving and our volunteering of our time is very low when compared to other states. We ALL (regardless of which state we live in) need to reach deep into our pockets and our calendars and squeeze a few extra $$ and hours out for worthy causes. Donating to your local ferret shelter is a worthy cause. Volunteering at your local ferret shelter is another worthy cause. Come on people-ferret shelters are not getting the $$$ that cat and dog shelters do! We do not have the funds to pay for staff. We shelter moms do not get paid for our work! Most of us have to work full-time in order to pay the bills (mortgage, health insurance, car payment, etc) and a lot of our own money goes into the shelter for food, litter, laundry, meds, etc. A lot of us sell ferret-related items on the side to help pay the bills. No one is complaining here-we do it out of love! But we do rely on the generosity of ferret lovers and if you are on this list-you qualify as a ferret lover. Search out your local ferret shelter and ask how you can help. You won't know how much of a blessing you will be --or even how awesome it will make you feel to know that you made a difference-- until you do it. On another note, we had some visitors from Germany who are on holiday in New England call us this week and ask if they could stop by for a "ferret fix" as they miss their ferrets back home. We had a fascinating visit, and they are coming back tonight (Thursday) to help clean the shelter and visit with my volunteers and join us for pizza. How's that for long distance volunteering? Stephanie Mudgett Ferret Services of Freedom PS - thanks to my incredible volunteers-Kelly, Lydia, and Bruce who are ALWAYS there to help! You guys are the BEST!!! [Posted in FML issue 3197]