I can understand how difficult it can be to operate a shelter out of one's personal home. There is the wear and tear on the floors and furniture not to mention the flow of the public in and out for surrenders, adoptions and, hopefully, volunteers. But, given the nature of this companion animal, the ferret, is the right answer to establish free-standing shelters for this species? Let's look at it. Sheltering for ferrets involves basic supplies such as food -which generally is more expensive than cat or dog foods- litter, bedding, medications and surgeries, to mention a few. This makes just the basic cost of sheltering ferrets expensive. Donations are hard to come by and never go far enough. Since ferrets are prone to stress and illnesses, they often need more intensive one-on-one care than cats or dogs, as a whole. Since nearly all ferret shelters I am aware of are 'no kill', they also often have more of an elderly population than the average cat or dog shelter. Yes, ferret shelters have unique needs and problems. So, is the answer a free-standing shelter? Let's say we have enough $$ to buy the land or have it donated. Let's assume we can get a grant to cover the costs for appropriate permits and help build it. Let's say legal fees for zoning and other related construction fees are donated. Let's be lucky enough to get all the cages, bedding, toys, food, litter and trash bins, litter boxes, laundry equipment, refrigerator, stove/microwave, tables and chairs, desks, computer and filing cabinet(s), office supplies, cash register and -if we're really lucky, we get a low mileage van- donated. Unfortunately, hypothetically, we do not have enough funds at this time to furnish the medical and surgical rooms for our new shelter, but that will come with time. Now we have almost everything we need to start up. There is never a shortage of homeless ferrets, so let's start with 30. They range in ages from 6 months to 7 years of age. How do we design our building to meet our needs? Let's start with a reception room (oops, forgot a couple of chairs or a bench while they wait) where the families can enter the shelter either to surrender or adopt. (oops, did we forget to pave the parking lot and add a little landscaping -and a sign and sidewalk?) This room is 20 feet deep and runs the full width of the building -72 feet. There are shelves (oops forgot this shelving) offering food, litter, bedding, supplements and herbal remedies, books and surplus cages for sale to help support the shelter. Behind the counter, which is equipped with our office supplies, is our work area. There are two doors, one on each side of our 'office' that lead into the heart of our shelter. The one on the left leads to the hall with the adoption rooms. The door on the right leads to the hall with the Surrender and Quarantine room. You choose the door on the left and start down the hall. On each side are two doors. The first door on the left leads into the juvenile room. Here we have the 'under two' crowd. This room is about 20 X 20 feet square with a large sink set in a countertop with cabinets above and below to store extra bowls and water bottles, bedding, litterboxes and other essentials. You have a bin on wheels for food (so you can roll it back to 'Supplies' to refill with shelter mix then roll it back to Juvie Hall. Same with the litter barrel. You also have a wheeled trash receptacle to dump used litter into so you can roll it back to the trash dumpster to dispose of the double bagged contents. There is a bin for soiled bedding waiting to be emptied into the laundry cart and rolled to the laundry facility. There is a small desk with a chair for the operator to sit and update records and a small filing system. There is room for about 6-8 cages, depending on size, but you don't have a lot of ferrets in this age group anyway -just five. Later as numbers increase, cages can be added, then stacked. The toys -and litterboxes- are scattered around and the room looks like a daycare. You come out of 'Juvie Hall" and go across the hall into 'Prime Time', the 2-4 year olds. Again, the room is 20X20 and has the same set up of sink and storage and the prerequiste food, litter, laundry and trash bins, only this room has an extra door leading out the opposite side to another hall so you have a bit less wall space. You have the same record-keeping capabilities as in Juvie Hall. You have 8 ferrets in this room, though, so it's a little more active. Coming out of Prime Time, we make a right and go to the next door, which is where the 5-6 year olds are. This room also has a second door leading to another hall. These guys are 'The Pros'. They know how to be a ferret. They've been at it for quite a while. This room is set up the same as the two before it, only it is a bit more crowded as it has 12 residents awaiting new homes. The toys aren't scattered around as much as in Juvie Hall, but there are a few precious stashes around. There is an air of comfort, as many of these guys have been together for quite some time, now. Coming out of Eternity we go left and make another left to see the 10 X 15 square foot adoption room. The room is cute with ferrety wall hangings, a table and chairs to provide comfort while families fill out adoption contracts and get to know their new additions. There is a literature stand filled with useful information -free for the taking. Not much of interest in here, so we leave, going back up the hall to visit the public restroom (unisex, and 10X10 should meet ADA requirements). Much relieved, we continue our tour. Straight ahead and on the left is the 20 X 30 square foot storage room, and holds the bags of foods used for the shelter mix and the stockpile of litter. There is an oversized door, with a lighted EXIT sign above it, to enable deliveries. (oops, forgot all the EXIT signs and required emergency lighting public buildings require, not to mention we need to be able to be handicapped accessible.) The extra paper towels, tp, trash bags, brooms, mops, buckets and cleaning supplies (oops, forgot shelving) and extra cages are crammed into this undersized-for-its-needs climate controlled room. The washer, dryer and laundry cart live here, too. There is a small 10X20 room off of the Storage Room that houses the mechanicals -both furnaces as the sick room has it's own system- water heater and filter, and catches the overflow of the Storage room. There is also a flat cart that delivers bags of litter to each room. Starting back towards the front of the shelter, we have the empty 20X40 square foot medical room. Someday, there will be an exam room with a small surgical bay complete with isoflourane gas and monitoring equipment to keep medicalc osts down. We do hope to find a vet that will take time away from their practice to come use our facility. We don't spend much time here, but exit and make a left and continue towards the next door, the Sick Room. The Sick Room is pretty self explanatory. It's a small, 10X20 room where anyone feared contagious is moved into. There are gowns, masks, and disposable footies in the small anteroom before entering the sick room and a trash recepticle to dispose of used materials before leaving to minimize contagion to the other ferrets. The Sick Room has it's own HVAC system and negative air pressure to prevent cross contamination to the other areas. ADV positive ferrets could be housed here temporarily, as no room was designed for them during construction. Ferrets testing postitive can be transported to another shelter or private home if the need arises. Our last stop before exiting the heart of the shelter is the quarantine room. This 15X20 room is the first stop ferrets make when entering the shelter before being assigned their appropriate distination. It is much like the other rooms, but is currently empty. This won't last long, though, as a group of 6 ferrets are due to come in tomorrow. As we exit back into the store/office/reception area, we are able to select purchases before leaving. Sounds good, so what's wrong with this? It's modest, and the room sizes are large enough to be servicable, but not too large, and allows for growth. But how soon before the numbers breach 30 and move to 60 or 90 or 150? Even with modest room sizes, this imaginary 72X87 foot building (allowing for 4" walls) is a whopping 6,264 square feet of space to heat and cool -and maintain. It will need things like air filters, light bulbs, cleaning supplies. What room(s) do you eliminate? make the shelter rooms larger and fewer of them? Drop the sick room or quarantine room? The elderly's refuge? Having more rooms increases playtime capacity. The 'hospital' could probably go. Minimize the office/reception/store area? All these things need to go somewhere. How large or small the building is will dictate how soon it will be outgrown. And it WILL be outgrown. Build it and they will come. To build a structure like this is an open invitation to 'bring your ferret here'. That's what it's there for, after all. And now, it's your JOB. But now we need to think about some other issues beyond providing care for the bound-to-be-increasing number of ferrets. We would have those expenses an ywhere. Let's look at building specific issues. Will the building be real estate tax exempt, and if not, what would the taxes be every 6 months. Hazard and liability insurance will be needed. This is based on the cost of the building, usually. How much will be budgeted for building maintenance? After all, things do break and wear out. How much will snow removal and grounds maintenance run? How will funds for these costs be raised? Who will do it? You can't single-handedly take care of the ferrets and maintain a structure and business of this size. You'll need money to pay for the water, sewer, and refuse. Just how much would the gas and electric bill run on a building like this? There will be telephone and internet costs. Who could afford this? Another issue is the manhours that would be needed to operate a free-standing shelter. Volunteers are important and difficult to come by. What happens when you have a ferret that is ill and needs 24/7 care? Carry them home and back with you along with all the fluids, meds, etc.? What about medication times? Will someone be available at the facility when medications are due to be given? What extra travel expenses will be incurred due to traveling back and forth to the facility? Would this dream facility, too, become the ferret community's responsibility? Before embarking upon an endeavor like this, the additonal costs associated with building and operating a free-standing shelter would need to be carefully looked at. [JY] [Posted in FML issue 5337]