Roary, Your list of things that you learned from your ferret is GREAT! Sometimes I save the funny stuff for last and come back and read it after the rest. Some of those are good for people whereas others would be almost sociopathic in a human. LOL! Nancy, there is a saying, "Nothing very, very good or very, very bad lasts very, very long." Sometimes it can be a helpful thing to remember. Heal well, please! I wish you many better times to balance it all. Hmmm, well, I know Nell and have passed on info often to her, but I can see why there is confusion caused by the repeated lack of consistency in her posts. Confusion breeds questions. Lack of consistency and of forethought breed confusion. I don't think that anyone meant to cause these things but it is totally obvious when looked at from a general standpoint WHY they happened. I think that reading Nell's past posts also can provide people with excellent reasons to perhaps NOT take ferrets to areas which lack good veterinary training and approaches, or if taking the remainder to have them for their lifespans to perhaps not add others later, and to find people willing learn and arrange for consultations from vets who are expert in the animals and their conditions with the local veterinary options. Of course, hindsight does not help Nell right now, but it might help someone else in the future, even in a less extreme situation like moving to a location in the U.S. where the only vet options would need to learn ferrets. Some other things people get to learn is that the USDA* has website pages with both import and export info, that shipping animals can be difficult, tricky and pricy, and the regulations differ among species of animals. It's been quite a learning exercise, but it still is obvious why the changes back and forth are pretty much bound to cause questions for people who have not met Nell and sometimes even for those who have, though the nature of those questions will differ in those two groups. For example, knowing Nell, I know that this is not a purposeful attempt to misuse any donations, but I can see why those who do not might wonder about that especially in this day and age when there are so many rip off places emailing and phoning all of us. (Which I why when we could afford to donate readily I wound up looking up charities every single time in reputable and independent third party sources to see how much donated money went to the those actually with need, how much to administration, how much to fund raising, how much to advertising, etc. before deciding.) So, I do not see any reason for anyone to fight on that score since what arose was not malicious but a natural consequence of the flip flops in the series of posts. Similarly, I do not see any fights being present in the Lupron discussion, merely people presenting information from each side and that is important because it ultimately is the best way to help ferrets and ferret people. * <http://www.aphis.usda.gov/import_export/animals/animal_import/animal_imports.shtml> and others Sukie (not a vet) Ferrets make the world a game. Recommended ferret health links: http://pets.groups.yahoo.com/group/ferrethealth/ http://ferrethealth.org/archive/ http://www.miamiferret.org/ http://www.ferrethealth.msu.edu/ http://www.ferretcongress.org/ http://www.trifl.org/index.shtml http://homepage.mac.com/sukie/sukiesferretlinks.html all ferret topics: http://listserv.ferretmailinglist.org/archives/ferret-search.html "All hail the procrastinators for they shall rule the world tomorrow." (2010, Steve Crandall) A nation is as free as the least within it. [Posted in FML 7726]