This was a very difficult decision. After long and careful thought and debate, my husband and I have closed Peoria Area Ferret Connection. He has had two major surgeries almost a year apart (total hip replacements) and in the middle of that I had a major surgery and four weeks after his second total hip, I had additional cancer surgery - a cancer that took my mother when I was seven years old and the same cancer that my oldest sister was just diagnosed with. I am exhausted and our finances are drained. We have max'd out our health insurance in less than a year. I do understand the situation with the ferret breeder down by St. Louis, but honestly, right now there isn't much I can do. It will take years to pay off the debt that we have incurred due to the club. We have tried to help the ferrets in Central Illinois. We have paid ransom for severely starved ferrets. I have missed activities in my children's lives to pick up ferrets all over. I trippled the milage on my car in a year (and blew a lifter). I'm sure that closing the club will not be a popular decision with people, but I'm at the end of my rope. My own ferrets think I've abandoned them. I know I haven't incurred anything that shelter operators don't deal with every single day. I just have to take a break. I have talked to many people who describe to me how they abused and often times murdered their ferrets and want me to give them a ferret "because they miss their ferret." I know all of this is nobody's fault but my own. People will go just as far as you let them. One of our club members will try to pick up whatever pieces she can and get together for meetings now and then. She does not want to put out a newsletter or sell anything. She wants more of a support group. I hope she will do well. The ferrets and ferret people need someone to turn to. I've rambled on long enough. I just felt I needed to explain things. Thanks for listening. Mary Oyer [Posted in FML issue 2060]