I'd like to put my 2 cents in here, if I may. Kris happens to be a very dear friend of mine and IMO I feel she is taking a lot of unnecessary bashing for her posts. She has been made out to be a "newbie". Someone who has no idea what she speaks of in regards to shelters and rescues. This could not be further from the truth. She is definitely not a newbie. She happens to be a very big hearted, generous, knowledgeable person who is VERY supportive of rescues and shelters. Just because she does not brag about her involvement in rescue does not mean she is uninvolved or ignorant to the struggles of rescues. She has done quite a bit of work with her local humane society, not to mention being a member of Ferrets Across America--she has been working very closely with me on numerous rescues and transports. I find her to be an asset as a friend and fellow "rescuer". Kris was not coming down on ALL shelters. She was merely asking questions and bringing up points that IMO are totally valid about one shelter in particular. Instead of these questions being answered, she got flamed. In using the term "nest egg", she was not referring to having thousands or even hundreds of dollars sitting in a bank account somewhere. No, not all shelters have extra funds laying around. I know; been there, done that. But to not have 30 or 40 bucks for a single ADV test? C'mon. She referred to this as an emergency. I do not consider money for one single ADV test an emergency, especially from someone who hypocritically downplayed the need for testing for ADV, not to mention vaccinating not long ago. Also chalked the tests up as "the labs selling the tests think they've found a way to make bookoo bucks on us ferret lovers."(her words, not mine) and questioning the test results validity. As far as Kim having a tough year..haven't we all? Been having one myself, but I'm not going to post about it all over the FML. There are just too many things that make no sense to me regarding SUMS. Why does it seem like everytime Kim gets a shelter kid in, donations are being asked for? Even for the simplest of things? Where is this money really going? You even asked for donations (sorry, you held a "raffle") for a pregnant cat you rescued? You have more raffles going on than I can count--btw, did "Tucker" ever get his surgery with the funds from the laptop raffle? You have received money from donations and these raffles...you have money to ship out prizes, magnets and other items, but you can't afford an ADV test? Hello? To me, an ADV test is a necessity these days, not a luxury. Are all your shelter kids ADV tested and vaccinated? Just out of curiosity, I hear of all these kids you take in, but never anything about ones that get adopted out. Are they being adopted out? Another thing that concerns me is how disorganized these raffles are. "Disks" constantly disappear with people's addresses and such on them, money gets lost(Paypal is eating it?), etc. It happened more than once. What is the deal? Did I miss something? You're playing Santa to kids on the Giving Tree--you can't remember who they are... you're sending them stuff which I'm assuming involves money...yet no money for ADV test, huh? Kim is NOT the only shelter in MD that could have taken this baby in--if money for an ADV test was such an issue, then she should have asked someone else to take him in. It's called networking. I am a shelter op myself. So I do understand how tight funds can be. I'm not rich either, but I do not ask for nor accept donations. But that's my choice. My husband works six days a week, 10-12 hours a day to support our family, including our ferrets and the shelter kids. It's a daily struggle.Don't get me wrong, I see nothing wrong with accepting or asking for donations. I have the utmost respect for shelter ops, believe me. Most, if not all of them are unsung heroes--they are not in it for the attention or "glory". And most of them do not get it, even though they deserve it. They don't play "martyr" either. I think I've brought up some pretty valid questions here. I do not wish to be flamed. If Kim would like to respond to this, please do. And anyone else....that has actually been to her shelter. Thank you for your time ~Nancy ===== Director/Coordinator Ferrets Across America http://www.geocities.com/ferrets_america/ Weaselworks http://www.geocities.com/imweeze/ [Posted in FML issue 3988]