I have, in the last few wks, done a day of cage cleaning & such at Ferrets Unlimited in Cleveland, & I know from first-hand experience what the situation is for Jean. I constantly tell her I wish I could do more to help her out, but when you live 1.5 hrs away, have 2 kids, & a husband who's work hrs are irregular, it's impossible to schedule yourself regularly to help out. Jean basically has only 2 rooms left completely to herself & her husband - the living room & the bedroom. They even share the bathroom w/ the shelter. It's unreal. What I do as often as I can is to haul a trunkload of supplies up to the shelter - bottles of bleach, those Clorox Clean-Up type wipes (except I bring the Kroger brand, which Jean seems to particularly like), cases of paper towels, garbage bags, laundry detergent, etc. It's not enough. If I lived closer, I'd be there at *least* once a wk. I feel it's my responsibility to help out, as a member of the ferret-owning community of northern Ohio - which is quite large. I'd like to think that it's the vast *minority* of ferret owners who turn their ferrets over to shelters. Jean currently has 90 of 'em. Which leads one to wonder, how many responsible & caring ferret households are there in northern Ohio? If 90 ferrets is only a tiny amount of the number of ferrets in this neck of the woods, there must be a LOT of responsible ferret owners out there. My question is: Why aren't those responsible ferret owners *helping*? Why does Jean have to get by w/ only 2 or 3 volunteers who come in on a *semi*-regular basis? Where is the support of these responsbile ferret owners, emotionally, physically, monitarily, etc? Jean is trying to build a building for the shelter, rather than running it out of her home. She's getting practically *no* support from area business owners (fund raising events) or ferret people in her area. And "her area" consists of some fairly good sized towns - Cleveland, Youngstown, Akron, Lorain, Elyria, Oberlin, Norwalk, Mansfield, Toledo, Tiffin (my city), Findlay, Bowling Green, Sandusky, so on & so on & so on. That, right there, is the bulk of the entire northern tier of Ohio. One heck of a service area, if you will. One ungodly tiny amount of assistance - virtually non-existant. Where are the people? There are certainly ferret people in these cities, right? Why aren't more people helping Jean out? Sure, she got a lot of help about 3 yrs ago, when she was dx'ed w/ Stage 4 cancer & was in such horrible shape. But I guess the support disappeared when it became obvious that Jean wasn't planning on dying right away. As her health got better, it was her *support* that died. And it's not like she's some fly-by-night operation. She's been doing this shelter thaaang for 12 yrs now - a lot of it, practically all by herself. A lesser person would have folded *ages* ago. I think the fact that she hasn't is a testiment to her expertise. But even the experts need a helping hand. Especially when their shelter is groaning under such unbelievable numbers, when her vet bills can stretch into the thousands of dollars, & when they're trying to improve their operation by moving it into it's own, purpose-built facility. Many of these things, of course, can be said for about every shelter in the US. Where's the support? Speaking as a member of the ferret community of northern Ohio (& speaking my own thoughts completely here, of my own free will & out of my own concern), I am ashamed. Where is everybody? We can do better than to let the only ferret shelter in our part of the state go unnoticed & unhelped. Jean, if you're reading this, I hope I didn't embarrass you by writing this. I hope I haven't spoken out of line. But it just ticks me off big-time to see what you're being forced to do on your own, w/ virtually no help, when it seems there are so many people out there who *could* help. It just doesn't make sense to me. I wish someone could explain it. </soapbox> Lin, Ariel, Oberon, Max, Puck, & Ivan [Posted in FML issue 5333]