(RA) Anonimous Poster, Please don't be discoraged with showing your ferret. When I first got our ferrets, we went to different ferret shows to see how they worked. If AFA shows are discouraging for you, then try a different show. Our show is comming up on September 17th in Bensalem, Pa. Dawn posted yesterday and explained how our show system works. Our orginization is Legion of Superferrets National and I ve been with this group since October 1998, I became a judge 2yrs ago and love it! Try giving our group a try, you may be pleasently suprised. At LOS National we believe every ferret is SUPER and SPECIAL! Our alter class is for early alters (pet shop) AND late alters (home bred), so they compete against each other. I've even seen a pet shop ferret beat out a home bred ferret for 1st place at one of their shows (and this was a championship class)! I've seen the same thing happen in the specialty class. So what do you say? Give LOSN a try, you may just like this group! You can get more info by E-mailing "Dawn" (show coordinator) at dawnpsmith@earthlink OR me (Debi) at [log in to unmask] WEASLE QUEEN [Posted in FML issue 4990]