well do "I" feel foolish. Found out the entry I was asking who wrote was MINE. I was taken back as it was NOT a slam against Tom and Cindy's rescue. The original did not even mentioned who the first rescue of the month was going to be. And it wasn't a slam against someone wanting to get donations either so I didn't recognize what entry they were talking about. I was making suggestions like taking applications for the funds instead of just giving it to someone cause they are a shelter. You all know I think highly of SOS - they are doing this - helping the ones in trouble. And I contribute my personal funds to them automatically. The rest I pick and chose as I can afford it. I knew I didn't get the point across that people get sick and tired of donating donating and donating. But when a particular cause comes up for a certain ferret or shelter running into trouble - like Rabbit or Cindy's - people leap in and give with their heart. How much better than just say collecting donations to give to any shelter because it is a shelter. I do give to fundraisers, I buy stuff and tell them to keep it for the next auction because we have more stuff here and we auction our own stuff off in a live auction/luncheon twice a year. A rescue can't reply on welfare or the good hearted people to support the shelter but ever so often even the best run shelters get into a glitch they need to reach out for help. What I thought I was reading was any shelter could be picked to be shelter of the month and might not be in mortal danger or have an emergency situation going on. Susan does an excellent job, one of the best I have seen, at promoting these auctions. She even puts out her pleas on our FB and to our private email list, which we normally don't allow just anyone to do as it is our source to raise funds for our rescue, where we try to keep our needs among our own group. I feel if you start running donation bids constantly without a specific cause for an individual need always standing with your hand out, people bid less and less cause they get tired of it, tired of buying stuff to support a never ending plea. This can hurt the efforts of the needy ones when they have an emergency. If you take applications and present a particular ferret or shelter as the star of that auction, or a couple of them to divide the funds up, (these are my thoughts) then people are more apt to contribute towards it even if it means bidding on stuff just for that reason. I apologize if I hurt anyone's feelings, I didn't mean to shoot down these efforts. I think most of the people can see a lot of what I said themselves, I did get emails thanking me for that post. The thing again is how much better it would be to have particular ferret or shelter to bat for rather than just having a shelter of the month. That was my suggestion and never was I saying don't do it or it was bad or evil to do or any such thing........... This is all I am going to say on the subject period. Millie Sanders, Director for the Texas Ferret Lovers Rescue with connected hospice and sanctuaries www.txferretrescue.org [Posted in FML 7698]