Hi All, 1st off please let me apologise again for those that thought I was saying if you cage your ferts you are a bad ferret parent. I NEVER MEANT THAT I SWEAR! I am truly sorry to have caused such a stir. I wanted to chime in with Dayna about those $1 donations. I think I can safely say that every single rescue operator, or whatever term you want to use, dearly loves to receive ANY donation big or small. We sure do. All those $1 or more donations add up and enable us to give these sweet rescued babies whatever they may need. Be it the shot for the vacc. reaction at $1 or the $250 Adrenal surgery. It all adds up and we are deeply grateful for anything you send. When I get donations in the mail once in awhile it absolutely makes my day. I look at the check last as I prefer to look at the letter or picture or anything else in the envelope 1st. What matters to me is that for whatever reason you were moved to help us to save another life. You see for reasons we at FANG have yet to figure out we have not had a single donation from within our own state. We have more out of state members than we do in state. We are trying to do all we can to spread the word about us and to let people know how badly those donations are needed. I am disabled and live off disablity and food stamps. I wish it were different and I could work to bring in more money to FANG but it isn't and never will be. I often wonder if I am the right person to be doing this. Then I stop and realize that at this point I seem to be the ONLY one willing to do this. So I guess that makes me it no matter what my circumstances are. I pray a lot now and I never did that before in my life. I figure I had better cover all my bases in order to help the beloved fuzzys:-) What I always seem to pray for now is the strength and the ability to make a difference in ferrets lives. I pray all the time that I will have the funds to help those really in need. Our only income is what we get when we adopt out the babies eventually but often that doesn't work. As in Rockadoodle's case we spent $260 to get her well and up to date on her vacc. and received $75 when we adopted her out. Now we have Larry and Stryker and they will have surgeries running about $400 together. These sweet boys and their brother are older and it may be very difficult to find them a home. Plus they need to stay together. And they all need vacc.'s as they have NEVER had any. If I can't find homes they will stay with me as permanent shelter kids and then their food and etc... must be provided for daily by FANG. If I find them homes I would be very lucky to receive $125 in adoption fees and more probably less than that due to their age. Our only other income is the $20 membership fee in state and the $10 membership fee out of state. Those come in once a year. If I have any extra money from a rebate check of mine or some such thing I always seem to spend it on ferret food or meds or something ferret related:-) I don't mind tho as I would rather it go to help them than to stuff a hamburger in my face or some such wasteful expenditure. I am not whining here I just want you to see why even $1 makes my eyes well up with happy tears and makes me ever so grateful. I have received donations of $3 or less before and they have gotten just as big a THANK YOU from me and my kids as a $100 donation gets. It is YOU out there all over the US and elsewhere that make FANG possible. I feel ashamed that most of our own residents in this state seem to just not give us a thought. But I keep working on them and trying to make a difference here nontheless. I still give out ferret info. to anyone asking and still will do anything to help a fuzzy even when no money is involved whatsoever, which is most often. YOU and ONLY YOU have made this possible. I am grateful for each day I can keep this going and I truly hope it will be forever that it continues. It is my life now. My life is absolutely 100% ferrets and nothing else. To the tune that I would gladly go without anything if my ferrets were in need of something and often have. So I thank each and every one of you that has helped me and FANG in some way. Whether it has been money sent, or wonderful words of encouragement sent. I treasure all of it. So never think your help is too small or unimportant to us, it isn't. I also thank you all that have helped any shelter ever. We are all in this together and that is why I asked you all to help Dayna when she was in dire need. WE have to stick together or we won't make it. Plain and simple. So THANK YOU EACH AND EVERY ONE!!!! TNT! Kelleen Andrews & Her FANG GANG!!!! [Posted in FML issue 1596]