We want to make readers aware of an international Emergency Canine Distemper Medical Fund that has been established to help any ferret shelter that may be stricken in the future by CD. It was established by an international group on Facebook. The fund was established by a group following an outbreak of CD in the UK in the fall of 2011. After an inauspicious start, the group restructured in October 2012 and was re-named "Xavier -- a Ferret Abroad." The Ferret Association of Connecticut now acts as the fiscal sponsor ensuring assets are protected and accounted for and are earmarked as "restricted funds" by FACT. Since the restructure, the group has paid off a large vet bill from that outbreak, has created the emergency fund, and is now ready to start providing small grants to shelters for CD vaccination clinics. We hope to never need to use the emergency fund. But as any shelter like FACT knows who had CD, when you are hit with it, you need access to cash immediately: for booster vaccinations and supportive therapy. As we ALL know, too many of our ferret shelters operate on a shoestring and do not have any resources immediately available to them to deal with an outbreak or the after effects. The ferret community can help but by the time the word gets out and funds accumulated, it is often too late for the ferrets affected. [Posted in FML 7809]