i am sorry to hear about your being flamed-everyone does what they think is best to help the ferrets in need- but sometimes others can be very dogmatic in what THEY think is best or right. Near me is a petstore- it is a well known national chain so perhaps i should not metion the name. they tend to hire the worst employees and when ever i go in there the weasels sometimes have no food or water in the cage- or they are crazed with ear mites- or the cage itself is filthy. I have spoken to and even yelled at the manager, i have called corporate head quarters for this pet store chain- and nothing was ever improved for the ferrets. the people who work there just do not care .. one day i went in there - and again- the same 5 ferrets had been there for about 5 months- still had ear mites- still flithy- still no food or water left in the cage.. so i took out my credit card and bought all 5 of them!!!!- it';s a bit wacky i know- but i do a lot of rescue work with abandoned or abused ferrets ( and hardly need to go and BUY ferrets)- and i said - these weasels are being neglected- so what if it is a pet store and not an adoption from a shelter or a "rescue'---i gotta get these guys outta here.... That idiot store manager thought i was crazy when i said "i;ll take all of them please"--lol-- i found all of them wonderful homes ( unfortunatly i had to ask for a fairly large donation this time) when they would have ended up who knows where .. i have taken in ferrets before sold by this store several times. sometimes a kid comes in there with money and buys a ferret and brings it home- The mother will say 'get that thing out of here' and 3 times i ended up with a ferret that way. - so i told this same manager to please not sell living animals to little kids. but of course he continued to do so anyway..just do what you can- and think is best. Peace,christine [Posted in FML issue 3469]