There are several strong reasons that I REALLY, REALLY am glad that the FML tries hard to education newbies to the needs of ferrets and that there no longer is that horrid inclination to act like ferret math is always something funny to be encouraged. One of these been discussed just this week When circumstances change without enough savings being present or when people do not take the medical needs that are INEVITABLE into consideration then the ones who suffer must are the ferrets and sometimes also whomever winds up with the ferrets afterward (often hard working, strictly economizing shelter parents who do without to care for ferrets who need their help). It iS better that the ferrets go somewhere where care can be provided when nothing can be worked up. All too often, though, if the people with the ferrets made the same sorts of sacrifices as shelter parents do (though often at a lower level) the ferrets would be able to stay home. MANY PEOLE HAVE WORKED OUT SOLUTIONS. Some pay on time. Some use credit cards and pay those on time. Some provide labor: creating hospital websites, scrubbing hospital floors, cleaning cages, doing bookwork, etc. Some find out if the vet might be willing to trade part of the cost for something useful: a spare cot for the hospital which can be stored away, file cabinets, whatever... Some sell their collections or other belongings in yard sales or on ebay. Some seek alternative vets by asking at their region's clubs and shelters and by looking at vet lists using such resources as the critical refs at http://www.ferretcongress.org and the lists at http://www.supportourshelters.org . Excellent points have been made, and these are important things for all to consider. We all know that circumstances can change for the worse, and many of us (including Steve and I, our family, and part of our extended families) have been in exactly that spot in these last few years. Still, while life can take a dump on someone (and always does at various points in life) often enough people create their own problems by taking on more than they can cope with, by being unwilling to budget, by being unwilling to sacrifice, by being unwilling to save. Given that life is always going to plop something hard to deal with on any of us it simply makes sense to be careful to try to create one's own safety cushion. It's just such financial safety cushions which are covering our ferrets' needs right now as well as some of our own. We all have rainy days and we know that we all will have rainy days if we aren't having them now, so instead of getting 8 ferrets get two or three and put the money you would have spent on additional ferrets, their food, litter, etc. into savings for the care of the two. That pair or triplet will not love you less for it, and may love you more, and certainly you will provide better love for them if you can care for them properly, no matter who you are. You'll love yourself more, too, because you won't have a guilt load driving you to exhaustion. There IS no easy way to say these things. No matter how they are said or how non-specific the points are there will always be someone who takes offense when the topics under discussion include some combination of things like money, hard choices involving deprivation, or politics, or religion. There can be people who agree on 99% of the things in life yet figure that 1% difference in choices is too emotionally powerful to overlook. So, even though I direct this post to no one individual and even though I offer some possible solutions and take into account that sometimes what life throws at us does exceed our safety cushions even when we have been careful I am sure that someone will take offense. The only solution for some is for the FML to continue providing the important service of warning newbies that no one who is new to ferrets should have many and that they should save right from scratch. That warning PREVENTS these sort of problems, it reduces the chances of animal abuse, it helps people have the degree of interaction needed to learn much about what their ferrets are saying through body language, behavior, and more, and it helps spot health problems early allowing to care, etc. [Posted in FML issue 4451]