It is with great regret that I announce that I will be leaving the shelter business. Laurie Long will continue to run the Raisin Retreat Ferret Shelter and I will help out when I can. I have been thinking about this for quite some time, but have always put off a decision because I just wanted to keep helping ferrets a little longer. A variety of factors have contributed to my decision. Some of them are: My parents are getting older, and are not in the best of health, and I want the flexibility to visit them (and other family) more often. My own allergies, including asthma, have worsened, and I have a rash on my hands that I can't get rid of. I don't know how much the ferrets are directly contributing to the rash, but certainly all the cleaning and scrubbing have taken their toll. I've always preferred to be a small shelter, not taking in so many that I can't give them all individual attention or have time to give enough attention to my own ferrets. But that has become increasingly difficult to do. Running a shelter is stressful and time consuming. I want time to do other things. I've been doing shelter work for about 2 1/2 years now. I will miss it greatly. Besides being stressful, it is also rewarding and joyful work. I'm hoping that now I will have time to do some of the things I haven't had the time for when running a shelter, like working with area pet shops to try to get them to properly house and care for their ferrets, and to distribute ferret care information and so on. I want to thank everyone who has helped me over the last 2 1/2 years, taught me about sheltering, caring for ferrets, helped me through the bad times and rejoiced with me during the good times and the successes. As I said, I will always be available to help Laurie and other area shelters whenever I can. Linda Iroff [Posted in FML issue 2589]