Just wanted to comment on Bob C's e-mail from yesterday. Bob broached this idea to us on his recent visit and I have to admit I was and still am very intrigued by the concept. We have been through the very thing that Bob mentioned in his post. A member (though not one at the time) had a ferret who was very ill. This person had already spent hundreds of dollars trying to find out what was wrong and had run out of money. It is our policy that we don't lend money nor cover the veterinary costs for any but shelter ferrets. We'd go broke if we did. Luckily in this case several members donated money to continue trying to help this ferret. Sadly the poor sweet thing did not make it. We still miss you Zorro! But back to the subject...we do have members in our society who are wonderful ferret parents but don't have a lot of money, and the odds are that at least one of them will have a ferret who is going to require costly surgery at some point. As a member supported society we don't want to be placed in the position of having to say NO to paying the medical care for a members ferret. Nor do we want to have to tell them that the only way we can help their ferret is if they surrender their much loved and well cared for fuzzy. Bob was oh so right when he said..."How can you guarantee that this ferret will go to a better home than the one he came from?" We can't! We are taking Bob's suggestion very seriously. We've made a list of the most common procedures, surgeries etc that ferrets may require in a lifetime and we've approached 10 vets for quotes on performing each of these procedures. We're assuming that at least once in a three year period a ferret will require surgery or some other equally expensive treatment. What we want to do is come up with an average veterinary cost per ferret for their lifetime, which we're estimating as 6 1/2 to 7 years. Next we're going to lie a wee bit (wow I feel guilty just saying that!) and call up some of the insurance companies that cover animals and ask if we could see a copy of their contract before we decide to insure our new puppy or kitten! This way we can see just what the typical pet insurance policy covers or doesn't cover. I know some of them exclude yearly vaccinations, other won't cover pre-existing conditions. These are things we'll have to consider. We're pumped about this idea and our members are excited as well though they are concerned about how much it will cost. The biggest obstacle in this is whether or not we can offer the insurance at a reasonable rate which our members can afford and how do we deal with multi-ferret households. Maybe everyone pays the same monthly rate regardless of the number of ferrets but are limited to a set number of procedures per year. I don't know! There are definitely a number of issues which have to be decided upon before you could put something like this into place. Only once we're sure that the idea is feasible will we approach the vets and talk turkey. We don't want to fall on our faces and we certainly don't want to go broke in the first year. Personally I'm confident it can be done and I can't think of a better way to ensure the well being of our ferrets. I highly urge others to consider Bob's suggestion, which by the way was only one of several that he shared with us. You talked Bob, and we actually listened! Barb Gustafson (aka Boots) Alberta Ferret Society President You can respond to this e-mail online. If you have ICQ my ICQ# is 1092229 If you don't have ICQ you can page me through: * My Personal Communication Center: http://wwp.mirabilis.com/1092229 (go there and try it!) * Or you can send me e-mail to [log in to unmask] You can download ICQ at http://www.icq.com/ [Posted in FML issue 2511]