Hello FMLers, I thought I'd give a bit of an update on what HAFA, the Houston Area Ferret Association, has been up to lately. (Note: I'm not an officer in the group, just a participating member.) Every organization remotely related to animals near the Gulf Coast has been busy with hurricane recovery efforts, and HAFA is no exception. When Hurricane Rita hit the Texas coastline and knocked out power to the region, HAFA foster homes were able to take in many of the ferrets affected until things returned to normal. We heard several secondhand reports of ferrets dying of heat exhaustion during the slow, hot highway evacuation, and I can tell you personally that the evacuation was one of those "We'll laugh about it in a couple years' time" sort of things, definitely. Storm relief efforts are still ongoing, as much of the area east of Houston was deeply affected by the hurricanes. I took a trip to Louisiana last weekend to pick up a ferret who was found wandering the streets of New Orleans after Katrina hit. She had been found by a woman who turned her over to a friend in Lafayette, LA, and that's where she had been staying for the past seven or so weeks. The ferret had fleas and was a little pudgy due to poor food and lack of exercise, but otherwise was in good health. After the quarantine period is over, we'll be fostering her for another couple months in hopes that the original owner steps up to claim her -- otherwise, she'll likely be adopted out to a home in Houston. We'll see how that turns out. I don't know how much airtime the relief effort gets outside the Gulf Coast these days, but the region between Houston and Lafayette still has a lot of ground to cover before they're back to normal. Signs are broken or knocked down everywhere, and I saw a couple of houses cleaved by tree trunks. I'm sure it's a lot worse in New Orleans itself, and I commend all the animal organizations -- ferret, dog, cat, whatever -- that are still striving to serve the region. On the homefront, HAFA continues to hold education days on a monthly basis in pet shops across the Houston area. Houston's a huge, sprawling city, and it's gonna take us years to hit every store in the region, but every event so far has been a blast. We've also held two public discussions with local ferret vets in the past couple months -- one with Dr. Dori Hertel of the Loop 494 Animal Hospital about the Aleutian disease virus, and another with Dr. Ray Cruzen of Steeplechase Animal Hospital about melatonin, diet, housing, and a range of other topics. HAFA's next meeting is Thursday, November 3, at Italiano's in Humble, TX. An education day is tentatively scheduled for November 20 at a place to be announced. Everyone's invited to all HAFA events; ferrets are welcome at education days, but proof of rabies and distemper vaccination is a must. For more details, visit our message board at: http://ferret.meetup.com/88 Thanks for reading this far -- and if you know of any way we can help out around the Houston/Gulf Coat area, by all means let us know. k [Posted in FML issue 5050]