I have a lot of respect for Troy Lynn, Dayna Frazier, and other people like them. They have defined their sheltering goals and taken responsibility for those goals. If the ferrets are in need, the people sometimes go without. I applaud them for handling such challenges in a mature and responsible manner. It's the shelter operators who whine to the FML about how they are going to miss their next car payment because they are paying for yet another surgery who irritate me. Accepting the burden of sheltering ferrets means accepting all the responsibilities that go along with it -- including the ugly financial ones. If you are endangering the well-being of your human family for the sake of sheltering ferrets then you have a larger problem to deal with. I agree with the anonymous poster from California who mentioned social workers who try to "rescue" their clients instead of helping them. Excellent analogy. Someone else mentioned people who collect ferrets and then become so absorbed in their care that it becomes an excuse not to live their lives. Another accurate depiction of collectors. It's difficult to separate the collectors and the emotionally needy rescuers from those who maintain respectable shelters unless you actually have some first-hand contact with them. That's why I won't send a donation check to a shelter I've never been to. I have no problem buying products they sell (some are quite nice) or buying products that support the S.O.S. fund (another great idea) but I won't send direct financial aid. I'm amazed at how relatively civil this discussion has remained compared to some of the flaming I saw earlier in the year. I am very interested in listening to those with suggestions on how to help out the shelter system in general. -mel [Posted in FML issue 2522]