Finally, I want to say something very personal. I am sustained by so many of you who tell me you think I'm great and that I'm doing such a wonderful thing - your words REALLY do matter to me. I don't see rescuing as extraordinary for me though. I feel that it is what I was created for - this type of service has been my core, my personality, forever. I've done this since I was a child; clumisly at first, but always well meaning... overtime I've simply grown into my own as I've matured. But there is a group of people out there to whom I bow my head... they do something that I can't do; I'm just not able. What they do would drive me more insane that I may already be. So to me THEY are the true Angels of Mercy. I GIVE HEART- FELT THANKS TO EVERY PERSON WHO PERFORMS A HOSPICE ACT FOR AN ANIMAL, especially those who run a HOSPICE. You see I take the body and soul of a ferret and let a vet - a doctor - make them well. I try to make them more sociable and serene or at least feel secure, then YOU adopt them from me and make them WHOLE as they are claimed into a family... but a person who performs a hospice act takes frightened or suffering bodies and souls and provides comfort and medication and wound treatment and gives security, rocks them, comforts them, LOVES them warts and all. Now you might say this is what a rescue does... but no... they are above and beyond that ... they do these things for the animals who are dying - over and over and over - their charges NEVER recover and still they give and give and give. God seems to have given them an unending strength and a fountain of love and patience that never fails. They may want to quit in their minds, but there is something in THEIR SOULS that keeps them going like EverReady batteries for the ones whose time to leave is near. These bodies may smell horribly, have dastardly wounds to treat that will never heal; yet these Angels are there through vomitting (YES FERRETS DO VOMIT), diarreah, shivers, shakes, and seizures to treat and to clean and to comfort and make right -- well at least they try to take away the fear and give comfort. They medicate, gently hand-feed, wash poopy bottoms, treat oozing wounds -- they do it all. I'm not talking about a rescue that sometimes has oldsters or terminally ill ferrets and they help these babies to the end - we all do that. This is all day EVERY DAY for hospice directors. Now here's the trick.. what makes them magical to me - they do it all knowing that that baby will be gone - dead - in a few hours or a few days, some in a few months. I'm talking about those who only take in terminal patients - knowing that they are the lost stop for these guys here on Earth. But what they do is sacrifice their sensitivity -- they take emotional hits over and over as each life ebbs to find another plane of existance -- to allow that innocent soul to know love and that he or she is not alone in the final time he or she has left. Have no doubt -- these people feel the pain and they cry as hard as any of us do when we loose one of ours, but they are guardians who take this pain on every single day for more times than we can imagine. I hear so many people say give to the rescues, give to the rescues.. and I am SO GRATEFUL for every penny, every hammock and toy and every second of help I get... but is there some way we could identify how many Hospices are a member of this list and maybe help them too. THANK YOU ALL WHO RUN HOSPICES, from the very heart of me and every cell of my body! Vicki Montgomery Tricks and Treats Rescue [Posted in FML issue 5098]