4 Li'l Paws Ferret Shelter had a busy year in 1996. Ferrets turned into the shelter: 149 + 5 on hand at the beginning of 1996 Ferrets adopted out of the shelter in 1996: 132 Ferrets remaining to be adopted: 13 (1 waiting adrenal surgery; 2 being "socialized"; 6 new-comers completing vaccinations) Ferrets in Hospice: 4 (1 with bilateral adrenal and her cage mate; 1 seven year old and his cage mate) Ferrets that died while in the shelter: 5 (1 complications from surgery; 1 kidney failure; 1 multiple illnesses; 1 delayed vaccine reaction) Vet bills are still be totalled for this year, but will likely top $7,000. That's not counting food, litter, medicines, supplies, etc. I'd like to thank our halfway houses and our hospice home for all that they've done for us. Without halfway houses such as these, we'd find ourselves very limited in the work we do. Krystal runs our VT halfway house and has made many a "ferret-run" from northern VT to our shelter in southern NH, bringing us ferrets from her part of the world. She and her husband have also made the long drive to help at our fund raisers. Great people. Kim and Phil run a halfway house in Manchester, NH. At times, they've held up to 35 ferrets for us while we were in overload at our shelter in Merrimack. They have made many trip to the vets for us; helped in fund raising events; and given us moral support when we were ready to give it all up. Our newest member of the 4 LI'l Paws Ferret Shelter is Penny, also in Merrimack. She has opened her home as a hospice house for ill and otherwise unadoptable ferrets-giving them a loving home for their remaining time. She gives them the time that we just aren't able to with the normal hustle and bustle of running a shelter. And a special thank you to BIG for this forum, and to all of you for being and for caring. Dick B. [Posted in FML issue 1802]