Jean, thanks for sharing your plan for your shelter. I sent this to the FML yesterday, but it didn't show up, so am sending again. Selena posted: >please share your experiences if you already have a separate building >for your shelter or sanctuary. Back in 1998 when I first started rescuing ferrets we built a twenty by forty foot addition onto the detached garage. This shelter building had it's own heat and central air, water and sewer, water heater, phone and Internet capabilities (drawn from sources inside our home). No separate water, gas or electric meters were installed to measure use, and we opted not to have a restroom in the shelter due to installation cost, loss of usable space, and I did NOT want one more bathroom to clean! The shelter is probably only twenty or thirty feet from the house. There is an intercom between the shelter and the house. When we built the shelter, we added a wall to make a back room that was six feet wide and twenty feet across. We have the furnace, water heater, washer and dryer, an outside door for egress, and food storage in this climate controlled area. We also walled off a ten by ten foot area for storage of litter, extra cages and other things like cleaning supplies, and installed an overhead garage door to the outside. This area is not temperature controlled. The shelter area has a wall of upper and lower cabinets and a counter top with two sinks. One is a normal kitchen sink for water bottles and food dishes and the second is a laundry sink for litter pans. It has a small refrigerator and microwave. It didn't take long to realize we made two major mistakes. First there was no quarantine room, and the second was no bathroom. If memory serves me correctly, this building cost us around thirty to thirty-five thousand dollars to complete. In June of 1999 we moved my 16 rescues into my new little bit of heaven on earth. Ferrety treasures went up on the walls and decorated the desk. Within months my little shelter had grown to twice the number of ferrets. Now, averaging around thirty ferrets, the spacious room wasn't so spacious. All the wall space was taken and we were stacking a few cages. It wasn't long before we were bouncing between thirty-five and fifty-plus ferrets, ongoing, and cages now were being stacked. Midwest cages were divided. When we ran out of room with the cages stacked two high, a third tier of smaller cages for singles were set on top when needed. We ended up operating a dual shelter with ADV negative ferrets housed in the shelter and the ADV positives in the house. All positives have since passes away. We tested all ferrets at intake, quarterly, and again at adoption. We never found any contagion, nor did we ever hear of any of our adopted ferrets having ADV nor testing positive after they left. Our highest number of ferrets was seventy-four in 2001. In 2002, I began to press toward direct placement for several reasons. First, I felt it might be easier on the ferret to go directly from one home into another, missing all the stress and potential exposure to things I'd run across in the shelter environment. The second was cost. I was spending several thousand dollars a month on keeping the shelter afloat. I looked at ways to cut costs. I started providing Rabies vaccinations, which were not required for my state, county or municipality, only to the ferrets that were being adopted into areas that required rabies vaccinations. ADV testing was only done at intake, and I utilized direct placement. I didn't cut back on any surgeries nor medical care. To generate funds, I sold shelter mix, and refurbished surrendered cages to sell. We also boarded ferrets. I thought we were doing pretty good, but it was still costing us an average loss of eighty dollars for each ferret we took in (eighty-eight that year). This didn't even take into consideration any costs for transportation, utilities, taxes or insurance types of expenses. I also moved about this time, and since I left the shelter in it's registered location, it meant I traveled back and forth (13 minute commute) to care for them. This soon became unmanageable because if a ferret was sick or on meds more than twice a day, I needed to keep them with me or make multiple trips more than just for morning meds, play times and cleaning, then again for bedtimes meds and play times. I soon had more ferrets in my home than in the shelter facility. Despite not being zoned properly in town, I moved the rest of the ferrets into my home with me and stayed very low key. I left the shelter's legal address at the physical location of the building for probably another two years. I had between twelve to twenty ferrets during these years. From the very beginning, any time a ferret was ill enough to need overnight care, the ferret went into the house with me, or after I moved into town, home with me. I never found a ferret that had passed away alone. I never once came into the shelter to find one in crisis. Maybe I was lucky. I like to think I was in tune with each one enough to spot trouble before it got serious. However, I have needed to get up in the middle of the night before, and give furosemide to a cardiomyopathy ferret when they were coughing, so there is value to being within hearing distance of them at night. During the 4 years the shelter building was empty, it still had to be heated in the winter to prevent damage to the building and cooled somewhat in the summer for the same reason. The shelter had to be maintained regardless if it was occupied or not. It was still a huge investment that had to be protected. Taxes on the property tripled to over three thousand dollars a year, as they did a county wide re-assessment the year after it was built, and they listed it as a 'workshop'. Insurance was a touchy thing as they did not want to insure us if ferrets were involved, nor a 'business'. They became 'personal' and the shelter was a 'hobby'. Risky, maybe, but better than no insurance. We were lucky and never had any 'negative' incidents. During the years we had the shelter in full operation, we had a wonderful staff of volunteers. One was full time and knew all the operations. We could leave for a vacation or go to ferret shows leaving Ann in charge knowing the ferrets would be cared for. We had numerous volunteers that were teens and older elementary school age kids. We would start in the shelter at 8:00 AM and work until around 11:00 PM. My husband would often bring out lunch for us. Most evenings we would take a two hour break and take anyone that was 'working' out to dinner with us. It was a very social experience and the bond between us, the volunteers and the ferrets was deep and precious. My 'shelter' is a haven for me and a ferret proof amusement park for the ferrets. Since it is mainly one large room, I can only accommodate one play group at a time, which is a real disadvantage. I also outgrew it within months. I think the same would happen with any facility you might design and build unless it was made large enough to begin with OR designed in a way that would enable expansion. The alternative is to find a way to keep your population low by setting a limit and sticking with it. Be creative about finding ways to help families. Most direct placements I've done, the families have been very willing to look at other options. It has cost us a lot, financially, to have this extra building to house the shelter. Fortunately, we have been financially able, so far, to afford the extra costs that are almost like a second home. Some homes aren't much larger than eight hundred square feet. Since my shelter building is within walking distance from my front door, it is manageable. I did NOT find it worked well for me when I had to drive to it, even though it was less than a 15 minute drive. These are things that will need to be looked at if a free-standing facility is pursued by anyone. Maybe the Chicago Shelter could give some feedback as I'm under the impression they have a 'store front operation'. We did get some donations, but never enough to begin to take care of the ferrets' needs, let alone the building upkeep costs associated with our little shelter. We did have a good volunteer base when we were in full operation. I think part of the reason for this was because it WAS in a dedicated structure along with the fact we treated our volunteers very well. I always took time to talk and listen to them. They needed my attention and to feel appreciated, too. One more thing I'd like to mention is the burn out that shelter operators experience due to financial drain, emotional drain and becoming physically exhausted. Shelter operators MUST look at THEIR OWN needs, too, and take them into consideration. I periodically push direct placement, taking in only extremely ill ferrets or hardship cases, opting to direct place all others or referring them to their nearest shelter (if there is one). It gives me a chance to recharge my emotional and financial batteries. I'm currently up to around twenty ferrets. I'm finding that the eight hundred square feet I have to work with is ideal for twenty to twenty-five ferrets without overcrowding. Like Kat and others are saying, we need adoptive families, not bigger shelters to house them. We need better ways of fund raising to help the families that are taking in these homeless ferrets into their homes so they can afford decent food and medical care for the ferrets in their care. Have all the shelters that are 501(c)3 checked to see if there is any money available to them through their local charities? Before anyone chooses to build a free standing facility, it needs to be carefully thought out and whoever is responsible for it needs to be sure they will be able to afford the costs like taxes (Jean already addressed this for her situation), insurance, utilities and upkeep because those likely will be expenses donations will NOT come in for, and they will increase over time. Each shelter has the right to do what they feel meets their needs. However, each needs to assess what they can consistently afford and can handle on their own without further taxing the ferret community with the facilities' operating costs. Julie Fossa FL (772)228-9067 winters OH (419)225-8383 summers West Central Ohio Ferret Shelter http://www.wcofs.org International Ferret Congress http://ferretcongress.org/ [Posted in FML issue 5340]