This year has been a challenging year personally as we wind down the FerretWise programs. Thankfully I have been (personally) free of surgical procedures for a full year! Hooray! and my energy level is starting to pick up (as well as, my arthritis in the cold weather) . I was so VERY pleased and surprised to receive several Thanksgiving cards in the po box following the turkey Holiday! What FUN! I thank those who sent the supportive and delightful cards this way! What I did not expect was to receive an email from Robin Jones informing us that Ferret Wise was the winner in the Thanksgiving Card exchange and as a result SOS had $286 towards shelter needs! THANK YOU ALL! What a blessing this has been for us! We will be receiving ferret diet form Totally Ferret with your generous donation!!! This is a bright star for our Holiday Season indeed. This year we did NOT enter our small group of ferrets on the Giving Tree as we know how hard it is for larger rescues to go on, so we chose not to compete. That was our gift, but this news has brought real joy in knowing that through the winter months we will have healthy food for all of our kids! We lost one more this week, Charlie in the Kittery hospice run by dad Maurice. Charlie is back here with me awaiting cremation -- another facet of care that usually goes unseen in rescue. While it is sad to see these lovely children pass, it is heartwarming to know that they enjoyed life , a safe environment, good food and quality of life. What more could a ferret want. Our fund raising abilities at Ferret Wise ended when we surrendered our 501c3 status so getting by has been tough, especially when most of the ferrets are in their senior years. Our donors can be counted on one hand, so we Ferret Wise hospice folks have had to rely on our personal pocketbooks to provide necessary vet care - and in our system at present with hospice folks spread across the state we use several vets instead of one core vet. This gift certainly will be greatly received and appreciated by both the ferrets in our care and by the hospice folks who care for them. We cannot adequately express our thankfulness to SOS and the participants of the Thanksgiving Card Exchange. Alicia for FerretWise [Posted in FML 7630]