General note to help FMLers: If someone asks for money VERIFY, VERIFY, VERIFY! There has been documentation of scam artists who actually make incomes in the six figures doing this full time on an assortment of pet lists, with dog and cat lists being places where folks are especially taken, but these people often USE (in many variations of the meaning) other pet lists including ferret lists and their members. We got badly burned at one time and since then we only give to verified shelters, the SOS, and verified places which advance the state of veterinary care for ferrets. (Actually, the last couple of years we have not been in a position to give and have lived extra modestly, but we've managed the ferret medical care so what was important was done and continues to be done.) Anyway, it IS possible to verify many claims (like Jean's for instance which is completely real and it's easy to find many folks who know her and know her shelter and easy to verify the history) and, please, do not be naive enough to assume that any sad story is real; there are people who make their livings by writing just such stories for no reason except to benefit themselves. When those people benefit themselves they not only take money from loving people but they displace money which could have instead gone to real causes: known people, known shelters, known veterinary care improvement projects, SOS (very known), etc. so they rob those who really need the money for real needs (like Jean's needs which are real). Verify, verify, verify! BTW, if you are touched by a post and want to help while verifying then look things up for them which could help them. Honestly, the folks who really use the info, really care enough about ferrets to learn, and so on tend to say thank you and tend ask questions designed to better their care. They usually are also interested in hearing about people who off-set vet costs by providing labor when things are really tight (as folks have done with everything from cage cleaning to accounting to designing vet hospital websites). I've been burned by some to whom I'm sent info, too, but at least I learned some things while seeking the info and found useful sites to also help others so it wasn't a waste of time. Of course, I've encountered my share of people who then wrote asking for money, and others to whom I sent all sorts of (ignored) info to help save a shelter and then learned from multiple trusted folks that the people are quietly breeding and selling in show parking lots with their shelter being something of a front. In those cases at least what I get to learn is useful to me and might help others who are real, but for anything past that don't send money until you get independent verification (unless you have such oodles of money to share that moneys lost aren't felt -- in which case I would LOVE it if you would, please -- instead of giving to fake charities -- give extra to some REAL and wonderful charities like the Morris Animal Foundation, the SOS, the U of GA research into ADV, the Ferret Tissue Bank at the AFIP, the current research into that mystery illness some kits have had with high fevers and enormous white cell counts, Jean, etc). A sad story is not necessarily a real story and I personally find it obnoxious that some scam artists live high on the hog by taking from those who have little enough themselves, good donors who could instead have given that money to those who also are achieving good in the world or have done a lot of good, but could do so much more good with their donations. [Posted in FML issue 4419]