Hello All, I wanted to share my appreciation for all shelter mommies and daddies all over the world. Everyday especially weekends you get the phone calls and drop offs of animals. People always have their reasons. Everytime they drop by to give you the tales of their reasons you put on a smile whether you like it or not. You graciously take in the new one of the lot. Some come in happy, sad, sick, abused, or almost lifeless. But, you dig into your hearts each time to take care of them. It brings tears to my eyes everytime I think of conditions that occur when these especially ferrets are given the deals they are dealt with. I dropped 2 ferrets off to the vet this morning. They are from the Ferret Business of Georgia needing their teeth cleaned in hopes to better their health and conditions. When I went in the door, there was a gentleman there with his child's hamster. The hamster was bleeding from somewhere. There was blood in his cage they brought him in. I noticed they tried to make the hamster as comfortable as they could. They, the family, had stredded soft toilet paper for the whole cage to make it soft for the hamster. I thought, boy, they really care. The gentleman had been taking out the bloody tissue and putting it in a tupperware bowl to discard. As I walked out, because I left something in the car. His head was down. I could only pray the hamster would be okay. What saddened me as I left is that some child may possibly come home without a hamster there waiting for him/her. And the love they shared. It hit me. They paid around $3.99 for the hamster. Approx. $50 for the Sams cage. And there is the additional money for food and extras. Vet bill approx. $25 for visit and there may be an additional cost. But, the love that man expressed. PRICELESS....... We'll I am going to end with saying I really appreciate and admire the work that shelter mommies and daddies do everyday 24-7. Thank you very much. If I don't close now the students in the computer lab in school will think I am a big softy for the red eye syndrome. Benita [Posted in FML issue 3901]