There have been so many people in need of help this last year...much more writing of it on the FML than I can remember seeing before. It CAN be upsetting. It surely has upset me. You wish you had more money that you could afford to give. I think immediately of what I can do to help. It never feels as though it is even close to being enough. I would like to thank BIG for the excellent way I see he lists these needs that shelters have. He does not keep the same emergency ferret rescue at the top of the messages day after day. Maybe he senses how sensitive we are. I do not know exactly WHAT he does or his thought process. But he does a wonderful job. I would like to thank all the people who rescue these ferrets, knowing that the animals are in great need of being taken in...Yet, these same people are not millionaires, and need financial support. With all the hurricaines, and the huge rescues from the Moorehouse group,and the large and desperate groups Randy rescued, with another large rescue following that, and smaller shelters in just as much need of support.. People on this list have formed groups like SOS to raise money to help keep these shelters afloat. These groups have become a key element to this list. I see the clever ways shelters are raising money on E-bay and with raffles. Good for them. I almost always want to see what is being sold. I am a shopping woman down to my bones. But that said...it DOES grab at my stomach. I wish I could take all the ferrets in. I wish I could donate a million dollars. I feel guilty that I cannot. We all have to take care of ourselves. Then we have to take care of the responsibilities we are already committed to. Just two of my ferrets have cost me over a thousand dollars just in vet bills in 3 weeks. So I cannot do all I wish I could. It hurts knowing that at times. SElling items on this list and letting people know of the shelter animals does pull on many hearts and hit certain disturbing chords when we see such need, and read of people trying to raise funds to keep their shelters going. I ask myself..how can anyone sell another thing? Do not forget that we can pray. We can e-mail the person and offer encouragement. We can rummage through our stuff and offer to e-mail it to the shelter if they want to try and sell it on E-bay or a rummage sale. If we live nearby, we can take in a shelter ferret from that shelter when we find that there is room in our home, heart and pocket book for one more high maintenaince endearing ferret. And if we are disturbed by reading of a shelter asking for money, we can skip reading about it all together. I know people who have written me that this is what they have to do to stay on the FML. They are deep, deep, deep in debt. And most of it is from caRING for all the shelter animals they have already taken in. To conclude...these messages of need and requests for help can be disturbing. But they are part of what makes up the FML, in my mind... a big part. With the fluffy funny, and educational elements comes the backbone core love for these tiny defenseless animals, and the unbelievable shelter moms and dads that risk almost everything to save the animals we all love. [Posted in FML issue 4848]