I'm writing in response to the person asking about fostering policies at other shelters. The Cascade Ferret Network in Portland, Oregon recently lost its central location and has gone back to having all shelter ferrets in foster homes, which was the original intent. One of the advantages of having foster homes is the cost savings of spreading the financial responsibility of providing food and litter over many individuals who only have to provide it for a limited number of ferrets. CFN has always hoped our foster homes would provide this, but if it would prevent an otherwise good quality foster home from being a foster home, CFN has supplied the food. This has been the case primarily with college students or those living on a fixed income source. CFN pays for the food if the ferret is on a special diet for health reasons, but many foster homes help by paying for this themselves too. Elayne Barclay Cascade Ferret Network Coordinator www.cascadeferret.org [Posted in FML issue 5274]