Hello list, First of all, I owe everyone a big apology for "falling down on the job" with our project to help shelters. I will be more consistent from now on with getting out the questions, if the list still interested that is. After I get the responses to Question 3, I will put them together with those from 1 and 2 and send them to the list as a long post. BIG can decide whether to make it a separate post or include it with the regular FML. Now for those who don't know what the heck I'm talking about, here's the deal. This post is one of many to come (hopefully), the aim of which is to help out shelters who may have one or more problems that they would like some help with solving. The idea was originated by Bob Church. Periodically a problem will be presented to the list and anyone and everyone is invited to brainstorm and submit ideas. The responses each will be gathered by one person and collated into a post that will be sent to the list at a later date. DO NOT REPLY TO THE LIST. SEND RESPONSES TO THE ADDRESS NOTED BELOW. Points to remember: 1) This isn't about pointing fingers. It's about helping ferrets and shelters. Comments should be positive and directed towards finding answers. 2) Anyone can contribute. You don't have to be a shelter operator to have a good idea about something. Maybe you have found solutions as an individual owner that you would like to share. Goodness knows there are some owners who have more ferrets than some shelters. Maybe you have experience with other types of shelters and can offer ideas for problems that aren't necessarily ferret specific. Etc. You get the idea. 3) If you would like your response to be ANONYMOUS in the combined post which will be sent to the list, please note this when sending your emails. SEND RESPONSES TO: [log in to unmask] The question for the week is: This is a tough one. Most shelters have a set of guidelines that interested people must meet in order to adopt one of their ferrets. Sometimes people have complained that no one could ever meet all the guidelines that some shelters have put in place, or that shelters are inflexible when it comes to evaluating potential adopters' particular circumstances. This can lead to a shelter accumulating but rarely adopting out ferrets. How can shelters recognize when they might be approaching this point, and how can they avoid it? It would be particularly useful to hear from shelters who have faced the temptation to be unreasonably strict with guidelines and have overcome it, but again, anyone with ideas should feel free to contribute. Thank you, Karen [log in to unmask] ====================================================================== A righteous man has regard for the life of his beast, but the mercy of the wicked is cruel." (Proverbs 12:10 RSV) ====================================================================== If you love ferrets, check out: http://www.dartmouth.edu/~crassi/index.html ====================================================================== [Posted in FML issue 2627]