Dear FMLers, April is here. For me, that means the time has finally arrived for my trip a stone's throw from Lake Erie in Ohio to the North Carolina's border with Georgia in order to care for my mother. Her last to chemo treatments were canceled due to issues with her blood counts, and she will most likely receive a blood transfusion this week. Mom asked me to send you all her thanks for the kind thoughts and prayers. She is finding one benefit to her enforced rest: She is getting to read all the books it seemed kept piling up that work and household chores kept her from indulging in. We've been busy finalizing the ferrets' foster and adoption schedules. Each single or pair has a bag of goodies to go with it to its foster or forever home, including a detailed care sheet for that specific ferret. Three ferrets are getting adopted. Two ferrets will be fostered by one friend and one by another, and they'll share the duties as each other goes out-of-town at times with my husband. My husband also gets to give the cats their pills. I feel sorry for the cats. Two ferrets are taking the 612-mile trip with me. We simple have too many special needs ferrets for me to foster them all, even temporarily, and one of this duo is bonded with me to an extreme degree. We seen in the past he has grieved to the point of near death for the loss of his oldest friend and needed to be force-fed and distracted by a new ferret to recover. Considering he is at least seven-years-old and has very advanced adrenal disease, the consequences of realizing that "his human" is gone... I owe a certain someone more gratitude than I can put into words. I've mentioned Anna and her boys before. They all volunteer at Ferrets at Heart, but we're friends outside of ferrets. I'm renting a car, and Anna is driving me down to North Carolina, resting a day, and coming back -- over 1200 miles. She'll do the same thing again three weeks later. How many times Anna has fulfilled a role because my vision was inadequate. But then, her stroke has left her needing a hand once-in-awhile for lifting heavy boxes and bags or doing two-handed jobs. Anna and I fit so well together, and we complement each other's strengths. We say the same thing at the same time way too often! Thanks, Anna, for being what I've needed now and so many times before. Mom can't wait to meet you! Since I have your attention, let me remind you about our raffle. There has only been two ticket purchases in the last two weeks. That's not a good thing. We have eight raffles with "prize packages," meaning that they have one big item or a group of smaller items. I estimate that most of the prize packages value $75 to $100, but a couple may be worth more. Even if you can't make a ticket purchase, please post the raffle link on your Facebook, Twitter, and wherever else it can be seen. Many of the prize packages are not ferret-related, so tell everyone! Go to http://ferretsatheart.com/ and click on any of the raffle links on our, our homepage. You'll find a stretched canvas painting by Jasmine Becket-Griffith, Bath and Body Works products, jewelry, animal print flannel sheets, a military men's gift set, a bird house, a women's business portfolio set, Golden Stone Graphics animal greeting cards, a small pet carrier, Zupreem kibble, ferret bedding, ferret things for humans, and much, much more! Time to get back to packing for the trip. We leave out Monday, April 2, and the scheduled return date is April 25, but the return date will change as needed. I can still answer emails from Mom's, but any phone traffic should be sent to 419-202-1112. That is my $0.10/min. cell phone. With respect, Lori of Ferrets at Heart http://ferretsatheart.com/ [Posted in FML 7382]