On behalf of New England Ferret Foster, Education, and Rescue, Inc (NEFFER), I'd like to thank the International Ferret Congress and the chairpeople who put together the Forum. NEFFER attended in the form of Vice-President Catherine Bell and Secretary Heather Wojtowicz, and we had a fantastic experience all weekend! Brenda Miller's presentation on "Alternative Methods in Sheltering" generated some great dialog among the crowd and brought up lots of ideas for involving the community in rescue work and finding alterative ways to help shelters other than the traditional ones. Brenda gave us some examples of ways her community helps her, and we are going to "take a page out of her book" and see if we can't work some of the same magic here in our region! Table Topics at dinner were very enjoyable! At my table, Cathy Sitek gave a great presentation on dental hygiene and led a discussion on the topic that gave me a ton of information that I'm passing on to my fellow ferret lovers back here in Western Massachusetts. All of the women who led Table Topics really knew their stuff and gave their comrades some serious food for thought. Alicia Drakiotes' "Building Better Laws for Ferrets" presentation was nothing short of brilliant and she also gave us all the tools anyone would need to start down the road of changing laws to better protect our fuzzy brethren. Alicia's presentation facilitated some great interaction on the topic and she answered many, many questions on this topic and offered some vital pieces of information. NEFFER is exceptionally grateful to have been present for this talk and to have gained this invaluable knowledge from Alicia. Guys, bring her back for the Forum 2003!!! And yet more thanks to the organizers of this event, Linda Iroff and Julia Fosse and Judy Cook...thanks ladies for leaving us some time for sightseeing!! Our tour guides gave us a great trip to the Falls as well as souvenir shopping time! We ended the weekend by having a last breakfast with Linda, Julie, Brenda, and Alicia. (and one lady whose name I have embarassingly forgotten!) Before we hit the road for the long drive home, we shared some last ferret conversations, picked each other's brains a bit, and had a few last laughs! NEFFER also did very well on our table sales, as the crowd at the Falls was very much in "ferret-shopping" mode and was eager to snap up t-shirts, mugs, cookbooks, watches, cross-stitch patterns, and every other "ferrety" thing that the vendors had to offer. It was an all-around success for NEFFER with some great contacts made and some sales that raised money for us to take care of a few surgeries that are waiting. Thank you again International Ferret Congress and especially Linda, Julie and Judy. Let's do this again next year!!! Sincerely, Heather Wojtowicz Secretary, NEFFER Inc. [Posted in FML issue 3916]