I just got back LATE yesterday from Ferretstock 2001, and I wanted to thank Ferretwise Shelter and everyone else concerned for a GREAT event! Even Mother Nature did her absolute best to help out; the day was warm and sunny, with a clear blue sky, and that beautiful crispness of early autumn in New England. It was a treat to finally meet some of the people from the organizations I have "known" through the FML for so long: Ferret Services of Freedom, MaFF, FACT, Gimmee Shelter, The Educated Ferret, FFUNY, etc. I wish I'd had more time to walk around the tables and see EVERYTHING! The Ferret Store was good enough to send some merchandise for the event, too .. there were many beautiful items for sale!! (Hint to anyone who loves stained glass: Stephanie Mudgett from Ferret Services of Freedom makes GORGEOUS stained glass ferrets!!) I also got to "meet" the bear being raffled in the Ferretwise raffle: he is handmade of mohair and SOOO beautiful! I love his little round wire-rimmed glasses, and his stuffed ferret sidekick sports matching glasses as well. The person who wins this combo. will be VERY lucky! From my vantage point at the soap and lip balm table, I had a great view of the "shredded paper pool" where the ferrets were playing all day ... too cute! My boyfriend (not a "natural" ferret person .. but getting there! :->) was laughing himself silly watching the ferrets competing (or failing to compete ...) in the various fun games. He's long been asking me why I haven't succeeded in training my ferrets to do anything "cute", so I felt vindicated when four of the five ferrets in the "best tricks" event found MUCH more interesting things to do than their assigned "tricks"! (The fifth ferret did a great rollover on command, and was rewarded with a raisin). The dessert auction raised a lot of money, and it was fun to watch the vets doing their best to promote the cheesecakes that they had made and donated to that auction. Dino Drakiotes (of Ferretwise) also made some WONDERFUL cakes for the auction ... he is a GREAT baker! One of my favourite parts of the event came at the end of the day: the silent auction, and red and blue ticket Chinese auctions. I'm grateful that I was outbid on some of the things I wanted in the silent auction, or there would have been no room for me in the car on the way home. (My boyfriend jokingly said to me, "So, will this be your first time hitchhiking home from New Hampshire"? ;->) I did, however, win a beautiful embroidered ferret sweatshirt, a bath towel with ferret appliques, and a "relaxation" basket of ferret products. Woo hoo! Oh, and I can't forget to mention that I met another one of the NJ Xmas Rescues! I have one of the "older" retired (involuntary retirement .. hahahaha!) breeders from that rescue. His name is "Sebastian Mitchell", and he is about six or so. Ronnie DiComo brought "Vivaldi", who is a much younger (maybe two or three years?) retired breeder from the NJ Xmas Rescue. He is SOOO beautiful! I was also struck by his resemblance to my Sebastian, particularly when I saw Vivaldi in profile! I wonder if my ferret is the father/grandfather/great-grandfather/uncle (or possibly more than one of the above) of Ronnie's ferret? When I got home last night, I told Sebastian that he did good work! ;-> (I also reminded Vivaldi to NOT forget to send a Father's Day card again next year .. haha!) So, thanks to EVERYONE for such a fun weekend in New Hampshire! Thanks also for helping me to show my boyfriend (again) that ferrets are sweet and lovable, and a lot of fun. :-> He was raving about them all the way back home, and kept telling me how much he enjoyed it. :-> - Ela [Posted in FML issue 3537]