Possum Here: Ho! Ho! Ho! Merry Christmas everybody! Wow Suzie it has been crazy around here again this month hasn't it

Suzie Q Here: That's for sure Possum - one Saturday morning Miss Stacie K stopped in to see mum she asked if mum wanted the leaves in the yard cleaned up - Miss Stacie K raked all our leaves and put them in our garden when she came in she asked mum where all the leaves came from you only have 2 trees. it took her 4 hours to clean them up our yard looks great Miss Stacie. thanks

Possum Here: Remember last month we told you our box that cleans our stinky laundry broke and mum was having it looked at, well it was going to cost as much to fix it as it would to buy a new one, so mum told the repair guy she needed to think about what she was going to do, there is not that much money in the budget to fix or buy a new cleaning box. So Miss Jackie R. came over every day to pick up our stinky laundry and deliver the clean stuff. Miss Jackie sure saved our mums butt, and kept us in clean things for 2 whole weeks. mum still had not decided what she was going to do when she got a call from Sears telling her they had a box that cleans cloths ready to deliver, can they come on Wednesday, it was an anonymous gift to us. thank you anonymous giver for our new box that cleans our bedding and for giving Jackie back her life.

Suzie Q Here: Also remember last month we told you about Benji coming to stay with us till our favorite doc could fix him. well our favorite doc found something on his lung when we took him back on the 18th so he is not going to be able to the have surgery. his mom came up from Queens to see him and spend the weekend with us. Miss Donna D picked her up from the train station in Rochester to get her to Naples. we had a great weekend with Benji's mom. Benji was sure happy to spend time with his mom.
  Benji goes back to our favorite doc on the 15th of December for another check up to see what if anything doc can do to fix what is going on. our favorite Doc needs to take another picture of Benji's lungs.
  Iliana has been coming to help keep things caught up around here. she does an awesome job picking up our toys, poopy papers and getting the trash out of the house. she sometimes gets to play with her not so far away girls Bandita and Delilah too. sometimes she comes when mum is not here so when mum gets home it is a surprise to have everything all cleaned and picked up. Miss Iliana is one super duper helper around here. the girls love it when she comes to play with them - Possum did you know that Miss Jackie goes around to collect news papers for us every week from the business in the town where she lives. she even brought us some she picked up from our favorite doc's office that Miss Donna Z dropped off for us the day Miss Jackie took some of us kids up to see our favorite doc.

Possum Here: Yep I knew that one weekend mum had Miss Donna D, Miss Mindy and Mr Pete all here at the same time so they helped get all us kids treated for ear mites while mum was busy cleaning our cages. Mr Pete held us, Miss Mindy treated us and Miss Donna recorded the treatment on our cage ID tags so mum has a record of when we get treated. that is one major job to get us all done on the same day. thanks you guys for putting stinky bug stuff on us! Miss Mindy has been working hard doing cool things to our web site, trying to make is more user friendly www.ferretfarm.org she puts a lot of hours into that web site to make it the most awesome shelter site out there.

Suzie Q Here: Well Possum it is the end of 2010 another year has passed, so many changes though the year, but next year is going to be a big year did you know that in 2011 there is going to be a symposium in Phoenix, Arizona on June 3-5, 2011 - ferretcongress.org Possum Here: YES! That means mum is going to be going away again!

Suzie Q Here: Yeah but Miss Donna D said she was going to come stay with us remember all fun we had with her the last time she stayed with us. mum was not sure she was going to be able to go to the symposium because of the cost of air fair, but a shelter friend told her to find someone to watch the shelter they would get mum there they would get plane tickets for her.

Possum Here: Oh sure, we have a chance to keep mum home where she belongs and someone takes care of the cost so mum can be away, nice.

Suzie Q Here: Look Possum, you know mum advocates for us fur kids, you know she works hard to teach folks about us and how to care for us. the symposium is just one more venue to do that. to help humans to understand and care for us better. mum is a committee member, vendor coordinator in fact - so she must be there to help the vendors set up and get things organized. Geeeeeeeeeezzzzzzzzzz - Possum you are so selfish anyway if any of you humans out there want to come to the symposium to set up as vendor give mum and email and she will help you make that happen you can reach her at vendors@ferretcongress.org.

This event is going to be a grand time, lots to learn, lots of ferret people to meet and greet. ones you have met you can meet again, just think, all under one roof ferret people from all over the world converging to talk about, learn about and share their thoughts about ferrets.

Possum Here: Will you stop pushing mum out the door, lets change the subject. did you notice all the boxes that are coming in for Christmas? the secret Santa s are doing their thing again this year. things come in almost every day for someone. mum says we are so blessed to have so many of you humans out there help her take care of us and make our Christmas special.

What cha think Suzie are we done with the news?

Suzie Q Here: It looks like it, all the notes mum left us are gone so we must have covered everything she wanted us to cover. the next time you humans get to read our news it will be a brand new year!

Possum and Suzie Q want to say...Merry Christmas and Happy New Year from our house to your house, be warm, be happy, be blessed. we will see you next year!

Possum Here: Hey Suzie it sure has been crazy around here this month hasn't it. I can not believe how many times mum has had to leave us for one thing or another, only to have Miss Iliana come in to get things back under control and keep an eye on things while mum was away.

Suzie Q Here: Yeah it sure has - Bandita and Delilah sure enjoy it though, that is their not so far away - far away mom. mum tries to make sure that they are out when Miss Iliana comes in so the girls get to hang out with their far away mom.

Possum Here: Mum has been busy with a sick fur kid from Florida that came here so he could see our favorite Doc. he needs surgery, but he had a fever when he got to the hospital so Doc would not do the surgery. mum brought him home to feel better - he is now going back on the 18th for that surgery, then there are kids that are here hanging out because their dad had to go to school for his work. then the kid that decided to go for a walk without his mom, he landed himself in the shelter for a few days until his mom figured out where he was.

Suzie Q Here: Isn't that the kids that mum was having a contest to name him, Miss Mary M named him Contest for his medical records. there were lots of other names that came in but by the time mum was getting ready to pick a winner Snatch's mom had found him. he was a cutie, mum was so happy that his mom was able to find him and bring him home. he was happy to have his mom back too

Possum Here: 436 of you humans went out to look at our pictures. that is a lot of humans. Miss Iliana, Miss Mindy, Miss Jackie, Miss Donna and Mr. Dick were all here on the same day helping out at the shelter. mum just keeps shaking her head at how blessed we are to have so many humans that help her to help take care of us. must be these humans think we are pretty special fur kids - huh Suz

Suzie Q Here: Excuse me, what did you call me? oh I thought you said Suzie Q, I am sure of it. yes mum says we are sure blessed to have so many humans think we fur kids are special enough to help us out. sometimes I think you get to be a bit much - but fortunately the humans seem to over look your conceited - arrogant, tantrum ways - Possum isn't it cool that Christmas time came early - mum had to go move Old Lady Kay to a new better place to live yesterday.
  Mum gets home - pulls into our driveway - there - sitting just inside the garage is a brand new ferret nation cage with our shelter address on it - Mum goes over to check on the box - sure enough it is exactly what it says - ferret nation cage - mum thought she would bring it up to the shelter - HA! - Mum is a weakling she could not move the box an inch.
  Mum goes in through the basement to get to the shelter so she can get us moved around - some of us to bed - some of us up - when she goes out the back door to go back out to the van - there is another brand new ferret nation cage in a box with our shelter name on it - we are not sure how they knew mum was wishing to have us in ferret nation cages but thanks for thinking of us and making it possible to put us in one more ferret nation cage.

Possum Here: Miss Mindy and Mr Dick put the cage together for mum - got it in the shelter while mum was taking down the old cages she was replacing, after that day mum took a ME day, that is when she hides the van, locks the doors and pretends she is not home. that is when she sits on the floor and hangs out with us. we like it when mum takes a ME day, she does not take near enough of them as far as we fur kids are concerned.

Suzie Q Here: She may get one this month, Turkey Day is coming so she will have some days off from the Big Yellow Thingy. Miss Mary B said she was coming to see us and her far away kid Trunks the Saturday after turkey day - mum is going to her brothers for Turkey Day Dinner on Turkey Day so maybe she will get a ME day some place in that week.

Possum Here: I would not plan on it Suzie. remember the big box that cleans our bedding died, once it gets fixed, if it can be - mum will be working over time to get the dirty laundry we make cleaned up. the repair people are suppose to be here this week to look at it. mum says she hopes they can fix it the day they are here because it has been down for a week already. there are piles and piles of laundry sitting in the basement waiting to be washed. mum says she figures if she took the 3 loads a day to the laundry mat that she does here at home it would cost her $13.00 a day and that is not even drying it so will you humans out there cross your fingers that the big box that cleans our laundry can be fixed.

Suzie Q Here: Well Possum I am sure we are missing things in this news but mum has been so busy that she did not have a lot of notes for us this time. I know she has been on line with several families that have sick kids or post-op kids she is helping their families get though. I heard she was feeling like she was stretched pretty thin these days, so maybe Possum you should behave for a bit to cut mum a break.

Possum Here: Oh Suzie I behave, I am always a good girl, you are the one that tried to beat up Josie the other morning. all because mum did not see you there when she was letting Josie and her business out of their cage. you are the one that did not behave, shame on you for being such a snot, I guess we need to get this news closed for this month. if any of you humans are interested in making a fur kid happy for Christmas you can go here to see who needs a Santa http://www.ferretgivingtree.com/ it looks like Tinker is the only one on our tree left to be picked, but there are still 169 fur kids that need a Santa.

So for this month have a wonderful Turkey Day. don't eat too much, and if you have a fur kid that likes Turkey give them some!

Possum Senior Reporter
Suzie Q the smarter reporter, cub reporter

Suzie Q Here: Hey possum did you see mums face when she came home and all the play rooms were cleaned up and the floors were steam mopped?

Possum Here: Suz - why are you starting the news, that's my job.

Suzie Q Here: Well let's see - one because it is already the 11th of October and you had not started it. two because you do not seem to have a brain that retains information because you just called me Suz, I am not Suz -I am Suzie Q!

Possum Here: What ever, so what is this about mum and the clean floor!

Suzie Q Here: Don't you remember the look on mums face when she came home to find the shelter all put back together and the floors clean? Miss Iliana came in while mum was away, to surprise mum, thanks Miss Iliana mum was doing the happy dance!

Possum Here: Yeah what is up with mum being gone so many times and so long, I thought with old lady Kay in a new home mum would be getting home and staying home, what is going on?

Suzie Q Here: Is that gray fur working its way into that gray matter between your ears. Old Lady Kay is at a new home but she fell and broke her hip so mum has been going to the place she is at 3 times a week to help her get better so mum and Miss Kathy can get old lady Kay out of that place, back into the assisted living place - she broke her hip the week after mum got a call that old lady Kay needed mum to come get her to take her to a doctor. mum found the message from the home that Mum needed to call them.
  When mum got done with our meds and was walking out the door to head to Newark NY - Miss Margaret was walking in, poor Margaret had to fend for herself - mum's evening got progressively worse as it wore on.
  Mum and old lady Kay left Canandaigua hospital emergency room at 1 am, mum got OLK back to the Newark home at 1:30 am then mum got home at 2:30 am, one week later old lady Kay broke a hip - lucky for mum Miss Kathy was on the east coast so she went to the hospital with OLK this time and stayed with her through the registering process and the surgery. Miss Kathy is back west now so she does the telephone stuff and mum does the checking in on OLK stuff. mum is happy with that arrangement, she hates the telephone.

Possum Here: So how much longer are we going to have to share mum with old lady Kay.

Suzie Q Here: Boy have you been sleeping on the job, old lady Kay is walking again. mum will be taking her back to the assisted living home some time this week, so mum will go back to checking on OLK once a week.

Possum Here: Oh cool, hey mum got the fur kids on the giving tree all done - here is the link http://www.ferretgivingtree.com/index.php - Miss Mindy has it up on our web site too. Miss Mindy is an awesome web master. Miss Mindy makes our site look fantastic - she also came to help mum get flea meds on us, mum says she can do it herself but when she does it alone and gets interrupted then she could get mixed up, with Miss Mindy's help she feels better about interruptions. sure enough she got interrupted when they were doing us, Miss Donna is still doing our yard, pretty soon the yard will no longer need to be mowed and she will come in to play with us while she helps mum do play rooms - When Miss Margaret was here she mixed food for us. Miss Jackie went shopping for us. Mum sure has lots of helpers to take care of us in all kinds of different ways.

Suzie Q Here: Mum asked us to tell you guys that she loves that you send her links to see pictures and videos but if they are on face book mum can not get into them. mum says she has enough trouble keeping up with the emails - so face book is just not going to happen in her life time. Mum says she wants you guys to know that the new IFC shirts are on our site. there are some left over shirts from the 2008 symposium too. mum says remember all proceeds go to IFC, so go shopping and help a good cause
  We had a second yard sale. Miss Iliana advertised it on Craig's list for us. it was okay but there were so many other yard sales that we had very little business.

Possum Here: Our yard sale help was Miss Brie, Miss Cathy D, Miss Mindy H, Mr. Dick, Miss Gail, Miss Jackie on Saturday. Sunday Miss Iliana, Miss Ginger, Mr. Joe, Mr. Carl, the guys trimmed our trees for us. they even trimmed the one the raccoons were climbing and getting into our bird feeders. thanks you guys for coming in to watch another yard sale and working around the yard. Hey Suzie, you see that picture way up top of this news letter? the one of me and Andy - well we have a new shelter friend that had that picture made into mouse pads, then he brought them to mum so the humans out there could buy one to send mum money for us for food. is that a cool idea or what? Thanks Mr. Dave, you rock. Miss Genevieve is back to coming to help at the shelter now that summer is over. Miss Pam and Miss Julia came to visit and play with us too. Waving at you Miss Pam. Well Suzie I have no more notes for the news letter do you, if not we can close this news for this month.

Suzie Q Here: I have no more notes for the news. wow this is a short one. Mr. BIG is going to be so proud of us keeping this news under 3 pages. wonder if we lost some of mum's notes and we are missing some news, you think.

Possum Here: I think if we did loose some notes and we are missing some news, mum will be sure to let us know about it, but we just made this news letter three pages by chattering about notes - anyway.

Until next month,
Possum Senior Reporter
Suzie Q, cub reporter and the cutest one

Possum Here: Where did our summer go? It is September already so that means mum will be busy running in and out again. it also means that grape festival is just around the corner September 25/26.
  Will the shelter helpers that said they would come one more weekend to finish up the yard sale please let mum know when and who are going to come help, Miss Jackie, Miss Ginger and Mr Joe have already signed up to help. Mr Joe is going to play with his chain saw around here too. he is going to help mum get some of the things that need taken down out of here.

Suzie Q Here: Mum has a brand new place for humans to help us and others if they wish. it looks pretty cool. we are not sure how it is going to work but we are up for trying it out. go take a look: http://ferretfarm.thegivingeffect.com
  Poppet and Munchkin W. came for a play time visit, after play time their dad packed them up and headed out the door shelter mum went back to cleaning some cages and putting kids away. mum heard the bell out on the porch so she went to see what was up.
  Poppet and Munchkins dad was back. he says to mum, I think I have a stow away, sure enough Skooter put himself in the carrier with the play mates. he almost went home with the Walker kids. Mum does not allow fur kids to mix like that, but Skooter got himself in there all by himself. mum is still shaking her head on how he managed that. Tobias came for a play date, Stitch came to play too. mum loves it when the kids she adopted out or helped to find a home come to visit with her.

Possum Here: Miss Iliana - Miss Donna - Miss Jackie all came to help mum at one time or another they do not all come at the same time. mum has been real busy canning up the veggies she grew and some that shelter friends brought to her, so Miss Jackie and Miss Iliana have been keeping up with our play spaces so mum does not have too - while she is busy canning. Miss Donna has been keeping the yard done and the bushes trimmed and our play yard mowed she makes our yard look awesome
  We had new people come to see us. Maeve wanted a ferret and her parents wanted her to visit to see what it takes to care for us. They decided that ferrets were not the pet they thought we were and we fur kids were not for them, that is okay at least they checked us out first to make sure.

Suzie Q Here: My turn Possum - Mum has a special request. she would like you to go though your things and see if you have any of these items hanging around the house. we are in direr need, mums word not mine, I don t even know what it means, my guess it is pretty bad - of newspapers - Miss Jackie and Miss Mindy brought us some but as our pee pads wear out mum is going back to news papers in the cages. she is only using the pee pads for the sick kids now. home made ones not the disposable ones
  She would like to know if you have canning jars hanging around, big ones, little ones, jelly jars, she had to buy some new ones cause she ran out when she was canning this season. oh and our microwave we use in the kitchen for heating up our duck soup is dying so if you have one hanging around that needs a new home mum will re-home it for you.
  Also mum discovered that Wegmans uses coroplast signs for advertising. that's what mum uses around her for just about everything. one day when she stopped there to get some things she tried to get them to give her the pieces they were throwing away but the 2 people she spoke too did not want to be bothered with her, so will you guys see if the places around where you live use the coroplast advertising signs, if they do can you see if they toss them and if so will they give them to you for us.
  They are the kinds of signs you see at gas stations and mini-marts hanging on the big poles out side. here mum found a link to show you what she is talking about in case you to do not know what coroplast is http://www.signsanddisplayswarehouse.com/merchantmanager/product_info.php?cPath=15&products_id=39

Possum Here: Mum figures if they are going to just throw the signs away she may just as well recycle them here at that shelter. so can you guys please ask around and see if you can get the stores to send them your way when they are done with them.
  Mum did not know what it was or how awesome they are until Miss Mindy and her mum Miss Gail got her some from where they worked - their work was throwing them away so they grabbed it for mum. only now Miss Mindy does not work where she used to and she no longer has access to it -Mum posted for some on the giving effect place too.

Suzie Q Here: Miss Mindy came one Saturday to help mum get the cages and carriers out of the basement, power washed, and stretch wrap. that was an all day job, they got hot, tired, dirty and wet, but the cages are all out of the basement. mum got them up to the barn on Sunday, it was almost 6 at night when Miss Mindy and mum got them done so mum kicked Miss Mindy out told her to go home.

Possum Here: We probably should tell the folks that there is no shelter day on September 5. mum is going to spend the afternoon with her 2 legged furless grand kids and her adult children. mum has not seen them all summer so she wanted to see them before they went back to school.
  What do you think Suzie, I have no more notes do you?

Suzie Q Here: Nope I believe we have all the notes mum left us covered. we will close the news for now. signing off until next month.

Super Snooper Trooper Senior Reporter signing off until next month too!

Possum Here: Hey Suzie where is the summer going? July is all gone. August is here and now we are doing the news letter again! There sure were a lot of things going on here in shelter mum's life!

Suzie Q Here: There are always lots of things going on in shelter mum's life, because there are lots of us to take care of! You especially - are high maintenance!

Possum Here: Am not! Why are you always picking on me? I am going to tell shelter mum if you do not stop!

Suzie Q Here: Oh boy here we go. so anyway - July was a very busy month for the shelter as Possum stated. we had many shelter friends in and out helping to do the various things that need doing around here. then add the yard sale we had - as you can imagine we had a very full month with lots going on.

Possum Here: Don t forget to tell about mum leaving us for 3 days! She got on a big silver thing that goes up in the sky and went to Georgia so see her 2 legged furless kid get married.

Suzie Q Here: We already covered that last month Possum. why do you insist on boring these humans with things we have already told them?

Possum Here: I wanted them to know mum left me and I had to be all alone.

Suzie Q Here: Oh brother! You did not get left alone. Miss Donna D was here the whole time shelter mum was gone. she took care of us as good as shelter mum does so stop your whining about something that is done and over! Miss Mindy came to spend the day helping and Sam came too. he worked really hard for us! Sam is Miss Genevieve's brother. He brought lots of papers up from the basement for us, and then mowed the play yard for us too. It has been far too hot for us to go out there to play this summer.

Possum Here: Okay my turn. the yard sale was a huge success. we had plenty of help - thank you everyone - Miss Mary B came to clean up and set up what was in the barn to sell - she spent the whole day working in the heat she got the place looking spiffy. then on Friday opening day it rained and rained all day. mum and Miss Jackie opened up the yard sale at 8 am - folks started rolling in shortly after. shelter mum and Miss Jackie put plastic up on the sides of all the canopies they had the stuff covered with, but there was so much rain that things were getting wet. Miss Jackie did a wonderful job making sure that anything that would be ruined in the wet got put someplace it would not get wet. Shelter mum changed into dry cloths 3 times that day.
  Shelter mum had us kids settled in the shelter until it was time to move first shift back to bed and get second shift up, that happens between 10 and 11 am - Miss Jackie watched the sale while mum came in to do the shift change and get something to eat. Shelter Mum had some of that yummy fast gluten free food that came in the mail. shelter Mums brother Tim and Al came to look at our garage roof that is falling in. Mr. Tim, mums brother - says the roof is in really bad shape - It may need to be torn down so mum is in a quandary over that, but she said she was not going to think about it until after the yard sale is done and over!
  Miss Sue K pulled in about 11 AM so that freed mum up to come up here to finally take care of us. Possum stop it okay, so it is still raining off and on all day so Miss Sue and Miss Jackie take care of things up at the barn while mum is in here taking care of us. then mum got back up to the barn to help for a little bit before she had to go to work. Miss Brie pulled in about 1:45 PM to relieve mum for work and Miss Jackie to go food shopping for her week with her 2 legged furless grandkids.

Suzie Q Here: When mum got home from work Miss Brie, Miss Sue and Mum closed up the yard sale about 4:30 so they could go in to help mum get the shelter caught up. Mum had second shift to put away, third shift to get up, that happens between 5 and 6 PM then meds get done and cages get cleaned. With the help of Miss Sue and Miss Brie mum had us done on time and no one got sick because meds were late. Thanks Miss Sue K for coming in special to love on me! Miss Brie thanks for giving us our meds.

Possum Here: Mum came in from the barn/ yard sale all soggy like a potato chip sitting in a water dish. I know what soggy is because that is how I like my chips when I can snatch one from mums bag.

Suzie Q Here: Saturday morning it started all over again mum opened the sale at 8 am and Miss Jackie said she and her fur kids were going to be here by 9 am.
  Saturday was hot! Hot! Hot but no rain! Mums God Box worked, she tucked the day into her God Box for no rain so she could take things out of the barn. the things came out of the barn and were out all day! Well not all true we got big rain right after Miss Iliana B and Miss Vicky F closed up shop. mum was in the house with 2 people that told mum they have a ferret shelter up near Rome NY. they said some pretty silly things about what they were doing, meaning it was harmful to us fur kids. so mum told the girls she was going to bring these people in to help teach them some stuff they can do that is not harmful. the girls agreed mum needed to do that, they heard the things they were saying too!

Possum Here: Mum spent a good amount of time showing them around the shelter and giving them tips on what she does with the things she was uncomfortable with what they were doing. Mum even got me out so they could love on me! Mum gave them some papers that she and shelter friends put together with good safe ideas for us. She sent some toys home with them for their fur kids too, mum calls that building bridges.
  Sunday was the last day of the weekend yard sale. mum was pooped she said she would hate to think how much more pooped she would have been if all the humans that were here to help had not been here! Mum says 3 cheers to all our helpers and a BIG thank you! Mum kept muttering about how blessed we are to have so many shelter friends willing to take time out of their lives to spend time here helping shelter mum with the things she needs help with. Anyway the day was a huge success Miss Stacie K. and Miss Jill W. Miss Loana S stopped in for a bit. Miss Stacie K. helped mum get one of the huge cages that was down in the garage for over a year, brought up to the barn yard - it sold 45 min after it got put there! yeah thanks Miss Stacie K. for helping mum get that up there! Shelter mum added some pictures of the weekend except she forgot to take the camera out on Sunday. Sorry Sunday workers mum did not capture you working. Last month 1,016 of you looked at our pictures

Possum Here: The whole weekend was a success. Items that were donated for the yard sale came from Kathy C - Donna Z - Mindy H, Gail and Dick H - Angie H - Jackie R - Loana S - Stacie K - Thank you for your generosity!
  The humans that came to help mum with the sale were. Miss Mary B - Miss Brie Mc, Miss Sue K, Miss Iliana B, Miss Jackie R, Miss Stacie K, Miss Donna D, Miss Vicky F, Mr. Joe and Miss Ginger S, Miss Donna Z, Donna D was here getting our yard looking pretty for us.

Suzie Q Here: The few things that are left - it was decided by the shelter friends that were here - that we should cover them and protect them in the barn until September and then Grape Festival weekend we should open the barn up and sell the rest.
  It took some convincing for mum - but Miss Donna Z, Miss Brie, Miss Ginger and Mr. Joe said they would come that weekend to do it without mum so she could focus on the fur kids. with that mum agreed we could do just that. that weekend brings to Naples 250 thousand people looking for bargains so it is a sound decision even if mum was too tired to think so at the time.
  Now for the best news of all, 2 kids that were coming in from Greece NY got here about 4:30 Sunday afternoon 7/25 but when Brie left she took Chase and Fran with her, so shelter mum added 2 fur kids and subtracted 2 fur kids all on the same day.

Possum Here: On August 2nd it was old lady Kay s birthday so shelter mum took off for Newark to celebrate with a birthday party, shelter mum took balloons, gift bags filled with chocolates, and a ice cream cake for all the residents to help celebrate Kay's 93rd birthday. It was a grand time and Miss Kay was thrilled to have so many join her to celebrate her special day. It took mum away from us but we decided that Miss Kay deserves to have a birthday party on her birthday!

Suzie Q Here: Okay Possum we need to get this news closed up and sent out

So until next month
Possum and Suzie Q

Possum Here: Alright so I know it is July 1st me and Suz are getting this news out quick because our mum is leaving us! That s right you read this correctly our shelter mum is leaving us to go to Georgia. She is getting on a big silver thing to fly 6 states away from us to go to her 2 legged furless kids wedding!

Suzie Q Here: Possum will you get a grip? Mum wants the news out on the 1st because she is leaving on the 2nd but will be back on the 4th. Miss Donna D is coming to stay with us while mum is away. Shelter mum is going to be gone 2 full days, look at it this way Miss Donna D gets us up when ever we want up - even if it is not our turn! Remember when she watched the shelter one weekend for shelter mum? She had fur kids from all over the place up hanging out so we just may get extra up time.

Possum Here: What ever! All I know is our shelter mum is leaving us and I don t like it. Mum has new signs going up all over the place so Miss Donna knows this that and the other thing. Things like, no library for Dancer, no play room for Bear, do not use inserts for poopy papers. I love Miss Donna but really why does shelter mum have to go to Georgia? Can t Miss Donna go instead? Think of all the signs mum would not have to make if she just stayed home!

Suzie Q Here: That's it I am done listening to your whining. do you want some cheese and ferretone to go with that whine? I am going to get the news started and finished with or without you - like shelter mum asked us to do. Miss Iliana sent us the candle link she uses when one of us crosses to the bridge this is what she sent.

Miss Iliana here: Thanks for sharing Possum. Here is the link for others to light a candle for Irene: http://www.gratefulness.org/candles/candles.cfm?l=eng&gi=DOOKS

Suzie Q Here: Thanks Miss Iliana for that link, even if Possum can t get a grip. Shelter mum got word that 1, 881 of you looked at our pictures on webshots.
  On June18 Miss Genevieve - the young lady that comes to the shelter every weekend to help shelter mum take care of us - did her first ferret presentation for her 4th grade class. Shelter mum added some pictures to webshots that she took as Genevieve did her presentation. Mum said Genevieve did a fabulous job. Me and Possum think the kids were jealous when mum told them she was training Genevieve to take over.

Possum Here: okay! okay I will stop whining, for now. I have some things I want to share with all the humans out there, like this message I got from Meiko about clinic day.

Meiko Here: Dook dook Possum!!! I am so sorry I couldn't break you out at clinic day!!! We got there late, and than your mum confiscated me!!! I think she knew what I had in mind...she took me away to ferret jail, and than I was put in the play yard. Oh and did you hear I got one of the poke sticks stuck in my neck???? Everybody was laughing and I was like "a little help please???" Jeez, my dignity was in serious jeopardy. But anyhow, mommy was keeping an eagle eye on me, and every time I thought I would be able to slink away and get you, I was grabbed back up again. I am not happy and I told mommy that, I told her I really wanted to meet my friend Possum in person. We'll have to plan something else, cuz I really wanted to play with you... :( Thank you for the very sweet card you sent....it's hanging on our fridge. Until we plan something new, your friend always and forever, Meiko

Possum Here: that is okay Meiko I knew shelter mum was watching closely at everything that was going on so I know it was mums fault that I did not get out to meet you that day. We will have to see if you can get your family to come play on a day just for you and me. Now, for some real important news about the end of July - as all you humans are aware old lady Kay that shelter mum used to help care for is now in a home - her place has been sold and has been emptied by shelter mum and a friend of Kay. Mum offered to have Kay's stuff put in our barn until Miss Kathy, Kay's daughter - decides what to do with Kay's stuff. Miss Kathy decided that we should have a yard sale and all proceeds should go to us here at the shelter, Miss Jackie brought things for a sale to benefit the shelter and Miss Mindy said she and her folks have things to put in the sale for the shelter. So we are going to have the sale the weekend of July 23rd 24th and 25th. Along with the yard sale we thought we should make it a picnic too. The humans have to eat and when you work hard you get hungry so we can have a picnic/yard sale to benefit me. What you do you think?

Suzie Q Here: Think? Think? Oh Brother Possum you are just too much this time around! The yard sale is to benefit all of us, not just you! The yard sale is to help pay for the food we eat. You are such a spoiled rotten ferret!

Possum Here: I am not! I am the senior reporter, a very important ferret, even Miss Kathy and Miss Marilyn were here last week and they came in to see me. Miss Kathy even held me so I could give her kisses. Miss Marilyn thought I was a very sweet girl.

Suzie Q Here: No the truth is they came to see Titch their far away boy. The only reason they got you out is because you were being obnoxious, jumping up and down trying to get their attention. I came out too but I was polite and quiet. They spoke to me but NOOOOOOOO you had to be the one to make a fuss to get out and get attention.

Possum Here: Well Yeah! I had to make sure Miss Kathy knew I was sorry for being such a brat about the time she was here to spend the week with us. I needed her to know I felt sad that I treated her so badly. Miss Kathy and Miss Marilyn have become wonderful supportive shelter friends so I needed to make sure I let Miss Kathy know I was sorry for being a brat. So Miss Kathy will you forgive me? I gave you kisses.

Suzie Q Here: on the same day Miss Genevieve had her presentation Wolfy needed our favorite Doc - mum had done all she knew to do to get him feeling better - something more was going on that she could not fix. There was no way she could get him to Doc before they closed at 5, between bus runs and mandated medical physical. Miss Mary met mum way to get him to the hospital, thanks Miss Mary. Miss Iliana, Miss Jackie and Miss Donna made things happen the week while mum was going crazy with other things. Wolfy was at the hospital for a full week. Grandpa Dick went to get him out of the hospital for mum. Thanks Grandpa Dick. Shelter Mum met Miss Donna Z in Canandaigua last Friday to take her canopies back that we borrowed for clinic day and to get Irene. Miss Donna Z picked up Irene and her carrier for Shelter mum so Irene is home with us now.

Possum Here: Oh yeah Miss Donna Z you know those cookies you brought shelter mum clinic day? The Chocolate vanilla cream cookies - Are you trying to get our shelter mum bigger than she already is she ate them with milk for dinner one night, then with coffee the next morning for breakfast and then again with her coffee again this morning. She sure likes them cookies, but being the chunky monkey she is she does not need them. She does not share either! Shelter mum and Genevieve went to the Terrace at Newark to do an out reach day. It is an assisted living home that Kay is at. Genevieve went with mum they took Precious Heart.

Suzie Q Here: Okay Possum we need to get this news done we are up to page 4 again this month. We want to remind everyone that the International Ferret Congress ( IFC ) has a new shirt design for sale. They are up on shelter mums site, Miss Sue volunteered to do the design, and because shelter mum is a committee member she volunteered to host the new shirt designs on our store site here is the link http://notjustforferrets.com/shopsite_sc/IFC_Merchandise.html

Possum Here: Let s not forget to tell the humans what ELF is Suzie and why shelter mum is helping the IFC to sell shirts to benefit ELF. Here is what we know about it: One of the goals of the International Ferret Congress is to enhance the welfare of the domestic ferret.
  The Emergency Love Fund was created to fill gaps in relief efforts for ferret shelters. This fund is now referred to as the ELF.
  The purpose of the fund is to provide relief in case of natural or man-made disasters, such as, but is not limited to: fire, flood, earthquake, hurricane, tornado, and other situations the directors deem appropriate. The IFC will work closely with the Ferret Emergency Response, Rescue and Evacuation Team (FERRET) you can go here to see more how ELF has been used. http://www.ferretcongress.org/katrina.html

Suzie Q Here: Okay Possum we need to get this news closed up and sent out before shelter mum leaves and we do not have it done!

So until next month, if there is one, mum is leaving us I hope she comes back!
Possum and Suzie Q

Possum Here: Remember back when I sent out an SOS to get help to set up for the CNY adopt a Pet Expo? Well Miss Danielle B set our booth up and spent the day teaching humans how to take care of ferrets. That was very brave of Miss Danielle because she had never done something like that before and she went all alone too. Mum was so proud of her for doing that for us. Thanks Miss Danielle, me and Suzie Q are proud of you too. Thanks for helpen mum take care of us, thanks for being a part of our team.
  Wow clinic was a blast, but hey don’t take my word for it because I was not there! So Meiko where were you girl? You emailed me to say you would break me out but you were no where to be found? Having too much fun in the play yard I'll bet.

Suzie Q Here: That is enough Possum! You do not verbally beat up guests!

Possum Here:Who is beating Meiko up? I am just asking a simple question where were you! Anyway here is the second hand news. There were lots of humans, lots of ferrets and lots of food and fun. The weather cooperated for most of the day; we had a rain storm the night before that mum did not hear because when her head hit the pillow she went out like a light! The grass was wet for the first part of the morning, but then the sun broke though about 9 am so things started to dry out and get warm. Mind you this is NOT first hand news coming from me, I was not there, I was stuck in my cage in the shelter away from all the action! Humph the senior reporter not involved in the real action. That is just criminal!

Suzie Q Here: Stop it, Possum they get it, you were not there, I was not there shelter mum had far too many things to deal with to get us up and out to go out side! So I will go on with the news; it was hot for a bit then a breeze would come up and cool things off for a while. Miss Joy brought her photography stuff and took portraits of fur kids that wanted them, all proceeds going to us shelter kids.
  Then there was the auction that Miss Mary and Miss Joy do for us too, it is all kinds of things that mum has collected and set aside, things that come in with surrendered fur kids, things we are tired of, things that came in because the family lost their fuzz butt so they donate what that fuzz butt used to the shelter. Even Miss Nicky showed up unexpectedly with some stuff for the auction. There are lots and lots of things in our auctions. Again all proceeds go to us fur kids here at the shelter.

Possum Here: Miss Mindy and her family Miss Gail and Mr. Dick spent several weeks helping to get things ready around here for clinic day, then on the Friday before clinic Miss Mindy surprised mum and showed up to help set things up along with Miss Stacie K, Miss Jackie R, Miss Jill W and mum. They got the screen house and canopies up, tables out and covered, chairs washed and placed the table ready for the food the next day. Miss Stacie mowed the grass in the play yard; Miss Mindy washed all the balls in the toy box. I think Miss Jackie washed our pool and filled it.
  Clinic morning mum did shelter duties from 3:30 till first light then went out side to get things that could not go out the night before out and set up. Around 7:30 Miss Genevieve got here, she was hired by Miss Mindy to help watch Miss Mindy's Master Toby and Lord Tock. You see Toby climbs out of everything and Tock digs under everything, so Miss Genevieve had to keep them from getting out of the play pen. She did an awesome job ferret sitting!

Suzie Q Here: About 8 am Miss Jill W. Miss Stacie K. Miss Mindy H and Miss Jackie R. came back to help with more set up. Dr. Edwards and his staff; Miss Pat N. Miss Mary M. and Miss Kim came in about 10:30. Things really started to get hopping by then. Miss Val came in at 11 to start up the grill she is our non-ferret friend that cooks for clinic every year. Thanks Miss Val. By the time Miss Val got here mum was already going crazy running from here to there, doing this and that. Miss Stephanie came in to show her 2 legged furless kid Alex what clinic day is like. Last but not least Miss Donna D was here and she kept things going behind the scenes like doing laundry, dishes and who knows what else she did while mum was acting like a ping pong ball! Miss Donna is shelter mums life line and anchor around here. All and all clinic day was a huge success. From all reports coming in; everyone had a good time including the ferrets.
  Shelter mum does not bounce back quite as quickly as she used to so she has been moving kinda slow up till today, Wednesday.

Possum Here: Sunday shelter mum did only kids and cages, Monday she had to address a place that was not ferret safe, a fur kid got her head caught. Clinic day Miss Mary B had a fur kid that needed to be taken out of the heat, so mum brought him up to her space to keep cool, it was cool that day, you see shelter mum took 2 barriers down for clinic day, the one that separates the kitchen from the outside and the one that separates the kitchen from the bathroom.
  Later when things were winding down mum put the barrier up between the kitchen and the bathroom and put Miss Mary's fur kid in there so she had easy access to him when she was ready to go home. Shelter mum took Bacon and Bits out of the play pen they had been in all day and let them have mums space until she was done tearing down things from clinic. When mum came in she came up to her space to get Bacon and Bits to put them to bed, mum found Bits but she could not find Bacon. Shelter mum looked in all the normal places she sleeps and then in the not so normal places she sleeps she could not find her. Bacon is deaf so it is hard to find her when she does not want to be found.
  Mum let Suzie Q out in the kitchen and up in mum’s space, all of a sudden mum heard Suzie Q dooking and dancing behind her desk, mum looked to see what was going on; shelter mum found Bacon had gotten her head stuck between the end panel of mums desk and the wall. Shelter mum gently tossed Suzie Q out of the room, closed the barrier and began trying to figure out how she was going to get Bacon out of the mess she had gotten herself in. See Mum's desk is built in so you can not move it from the wall. Shelter mums heart was racing, and she was so scared she would hurt Bacon trying to get her out. Mum pulled the side panel away from the desk, it hurt Bacon a little bit but not as much as she was hurting being stuck between it and the wall. Mum got that spot ferret proofed so no more heads can go in there!

Suzie Q Here: Miss Jackie came a bit later on Monday to help mum around the shelter and boy did she get things back on track. Oh Miss Mindy contacted me and Possum to see if we knew of anyone that could bake Miss Gail a cake, Miss Mindy wanted a special cake for Gail for her birthday. So when Mum saw what Miss Mindy wanted she told us to tell Miss Mindy we knew just the right person to take care of baking the cake. Miss Mindy wanted a litter box cake made, mum knew Miss Mindy would tell her no she did not want mum to make the cake because it was just a few days before clinic, but mum knew that she needed to make it because it had to be a ferret litter box cake.
  Mums intention was to make it up on Friday but when Miss Mindy showed up to work mum had to put that idea aside. Mum initiated the new oven with the special cake; the cake ran off the side of the cake pan and spilled onto the oven floor and burner. What a mess it made. Miss Stacie K. was here when it happened; mum said the mess was going to have to wait till after clinic to be cleaned up.
  Luckily when it happened the cake was pretty well done so mum turned off the oven so the cake on the bottom of the oven did not burn. When mum cleaned it up Tuesday morning it came right out with no fuss and not too much mess.

Possum Here: okay Suzie, we gotta get this news wrapped up it is 4 pages long and Mr. Big is gonna have a cow if it gets any bigger. Just for the record Miss Mary B out bid everyone for the stained glass so she took it home. Our Irene died on Monday so Miss Iliana lit a candle for her it is here http://www.gratefulness.org/candles/message.cfm?l=eng&cid=10966983

So until next month,
  Possum and Suzie Q

Possum Here: Hey everybody, did you think me and Suz were not doing the news? Wow I made a rhyme!

Suzie Q Here: Yeah big deal you know you are not suppose to call me Suz, so rhyme or not you gotta stop! See I can make a rhyme too. Possum you are always being such a snot, see there is another rhyme so it does not take a really smart ferret to do rhymes!
  I am going to start the news since you seem to think it rhymes time. It has been a really busy month with all kinds of things going on. When it was Easter Miss Genevieve brought us Easter Baskets with lots of goodies in it, she really loves us. Miss Jackie R brought mum dinner that day too. Shelter Mum is going crazy it is almost melt down time for her because clinic day is just 3 weeks away. you better let shelter mum know if you are coming so she can know how much food to make.

Possum Here: Suzie Q are you going to let me tell some news?

Suzie Q Here: Are you going to stop rhyming words and tell some news?

Possum Here: Alright! Alright I get your point! Oops sorry!, Miss Gail, Miss Genevieve, Miss Ginger, Miss Donna, Miss Mindy, Mr. Carl, Mr. Dick, and Mr. Joe all came here to see us on the same day. Oh! Oh did you know you humans out there went to our web shots site and there were 954 of you that looked at our pictures? Then Shelter mum did a community out reach program for the veterans at the Naples Activity Center (NAC) the guys were thrilled to see the ferrets. Jackie R. went with shelter mum to take pictures she did a great job. Chase and Fran were the ambassadors; they did well for a couple of young ferrets, new to shelter life and their first time out to do a community program.
  Oh yeah mum wants us to remind you that our shop site has moved, mum says book mark it for future reference cause it is not on the shelter site any more. They need to be separate.

Suzie Q Here: My turn!!!
  Back in February shelter mum had some surrenders (a business of 3) came in that were more bent on dying then staying here. Shelter mum got them over the hump then took in a business of 2 more. Since the end of February the kids that shelter mum has taken in were a struggle to keep alive. Between Sub-Q and force feeding they kept shelter mum very busy. All but a business of 2 that came in have come around and are doing fine. One of a two group has come around but her brother is not so sure he likes shelter mum. He loves Miss Mindy though. Thankfully the most of them are now happy to be here. Shelter mum says we are full so she will get a well needed break from intakes, because there is no more room in the Inn to take on any more fur kids at this time.

Possum Here: You know that is not true Suzie Q! Shelter mum has some open cages but they are for fur kids that come from referrals because of abuse, neglect or incarcerations when shelter mum is called by authorities. Shelter mum says we are full to families that just do not want to be bothered any more.
  Shelter mum says she thinks she has all the 501 paper work done so she sent it to Miss Kathy; Titch's far away mom. Miss Kathy will review the papers shelter mum sent her and then let shelter mum know what, if anything she needs to do before the application is mailed to the IRS.
  Miss Donna, Miss Iliana, Miss Mary B came to hang out with us and help mum do some things around here. Miss Iliana; Bandita and Delilah s far away mom sends cyber candles lit for any of us fur kids that leave for Rainbow Bridge . Here is what she sent last week http://www.gratefulness.org/candles/view.cfm?l=eng&c=10798021 Thanks Miss Iliana for loving us so.

Suzie Q Here: Okay I want to tell about the wild visitor we had on our porch the other morning. Shelter mum did not let us fur kids have our porch for a few days and nights because it was too cold. So when shelter mum was making her morning coffee she heard movement and noise out on our porch.
  Shelter mum said her heart stopped thinking she had forgotten to take someone off and left them out there. Shelter mum flipped on the light and started to unlock the door to go see who was out there when through the window she saw this very large raccoon jumping on top of the cage and over the wall to the other side of the porch.
  Shelter mum said her first thought was thankfully we fur kids were not out there, the second was how the raccoon got in there in the first place! Shelter mum went to the other side of the porch to see where the raccoon got to; he had pulled the screen loose from the door and came though there.
  Shelter mum was real glad she did not have to show him the way out. The big guy made a mess, there were things all over from him knocking them off the shelves, but he left the same way he came in. Mum put the storm window back in that door and will add hardware cloth to the screen when she repairs that screen insert to put back in the door for summer.

Possum Here: I want to tell about the next day! So the next morning the raccoon not to be kept out and off the porch (again we fur kids did not get to sleep out there) shelter mum opened the kitchen door to the porch to see if we could be on the porch that morning to play, even if it had been warm enough shelter mum could not let us use the porch because shelter mum found the screen door to our side of the porch was ripped apart, the raccoon pulled the hardware cloth and screen right off the door and broke the wood that held the door together. Shelter mum said that even if the raccoon had left us alone we would have found we could get out the door through where the raccoon pulled it all apart. Mum took pictures of the damage.
  Shelter mum put the storm window back in the door but the raccoon dug a hole in the bottom part of the wood, shelter mum put hardware cloth on the inside and outside of the door until she can figure out how she is going to get it replaced. We are no longer allowed to spend the night on the porch, shelter mum brings us and the food in before she goes to bed, locks up the doors and leaves the light on so the raccoon will stay away. So far he has not come back since shelter mum has been doing that.
  Shelter mum told Miss Kathy she did not mind the wild life being around; but now she is a bit miffed that the raccoon has made it so she can not allow us to be out on the porch at night because she can not trust the raccoon will not come back. Shelter mum has lived here in this house for 18 years shelter mum has allowed us to use our side of the porch for camping at night for as long as she has been sheltering. Not until now has there ever been a problem with wild life trying to get onto our side of the porch to eat our food.

Suzie Q Here: So do we have all the things that mum had on the list for us to tell in the news taken care of? I have all of my list done how about yours?

Possum Here: Yep I have my list covered too so I guess it is time to close the news. We hope to see you on clinic day for lots of fun, eats and treasures.

Suzie Q Here: signing off until next month.

Super Snooper Trooper Senior Reporter Possum signing off until next month too!

Possum Here: Happy Happy New Year!

Suzie Q Here: Hey Possum you already did the New Years news it is Easter now! Man you are getting really forgetful in your OLD age gray too for that matter!

Possum Here: I am not old and not forgetful maybe a bit gray though. I was just making sure the humans out there were paying attention. We have some really important things to tell in this month s news.

Suzie Q Here: Yah right what exactly is that? I get the same notes you do from shelter mum about what is to go in the news and I do not see anything in MY notes about more important stuffs than any other stuffs we have notes on.

Possum Here: HA! That is because when important things are going on in the shelter I am not sleeping like you are, I am paying attention to what is being said, that is how I know about the more important stuff!
  So here is the poop on some important stuff, we told you humans a while back that we have this very nice lady helping shelter mum pull things together so our shelter can become a not for profit organization, shelter mum says it is a 501(c)(3).

Suzie Q Here: We already told them that; why are you telling it again?

Possum Here: If you would let me finish you would find out what is so important! The board of directors are set, Miss Kathy is working her fingers to the bone putting the information together but ultimately (like that big word? shelter mum taught me that one) it is Shelter Mum that has to pull the information out of the shelter records and get them to the correct person for them to do what needs doing so Miss Kathy can get it on the correct form for the 501(c) (3). Shelter mum is reading emails, keeping track of the FML, IFC, and all the other important things she has going on in her ferret life, including US! However some of the emails are not getting answered in a timely manner but shelter mum wants you all to know she is paying attention and if there is a post that has a sick ferret in need or a fur kid that needs a place to go she is on it but the other stuffs is getting set aside so she can get this 501(c)(3) stuff together for the board and Miss Kathy. She asked us to ask you to be patient with her.

Suzie Q Here: oaky okay they get it Possum! Now can we get on with the other stuff? Mr Pete B. came in to see us, deliver the mending Miss Lisa B. did for us, he swept the floor while shelter mum cleaned cages. Miss Donna came in to play with Dancer and ME!!!! Cause I am special to her. She picked up our toys and fixed our poo papers. She even raked some of the leaves in the yard, she hates raking leaves but shelter mum had not gotten the leaves off the flowers so Miss Donna did it. Thanks Miss Donna!
  Miss Margaret from Staten Island picked up a fur baby that was living in the Bronx to bring him all the way up to Naples to shelter mum because his owner did not want him any more. He was only 12 weeks old and already in the shelter. Shelter mum says that makes her really sad. So when Miss Janette came to look at shelter mums computer to see why it has a mind of its own, shelter mum took Miss Janette into the room to meet Stitch. It was love at first sight! Miss Janette took him out of the cage and held him the rest of the time she was here working on the computer. Stitch went home with Miss Janette the following Thursday. Pictures of them the day they met are on our web site.

Possum Here: Don t forget about Miss Whitney and Mr Sam they came to see us too, looking to adopt. Bacon and Bits fell in love with them. After some visits with us and discussions about their short term future plans they decided it would not be fair to Bacon and Bits to take them home with them because they had so many things going on between March and July. One being they have no home to go to because they are graduating from college in May, then getting married then finding a job to where ever there is one. So Miss Whitney contacted shelter mum to see if they could sponsor Bacon and Bits instead.
  Mum sent them the information she is now waiting to hear from them. Miss Jackie R. has been dropping by to pick up dirty laundry to help mum keep up. Shelter mum does a minimum of 3 loads a day 7 days a week but when she strips cages there is more bedding to wash and 3 loads do not keep us in clean laundry, so Miss Jackie takes 3-4 loads home with her to do for us too. When she brings the clean laundry back she sometimes brings mum lunch/dinner too. Miss Jackie knows shelter mum sometimes forgets to stop and eat so when she brings in the already cooked food mum sits and refuels. Thanks Miss Jackie for helping us take care of our shelter mum.

Suzie Q Here: Hey Possum don t forget we have an update on the sick stove! Remember when Possum told you our stove was sick and mum was burning things (shelter mum is a good cook when she gets time to cook so don t even go there) she was burning our Duck soup, well Miss Jennifer B. tried to help by getting a repair man in to fix it only it was not really that fixable so shelter mum got a call from Home Depot that there was a new stove going to be delivered on Thursday. Miss/Mr. Anonymous got it for us so mum will not burn our Duck soup any more. Miss Jackie came to sit with us to be here for the delivery. Shelter Mum made us a new batch of soup yesterday nope. Nope. Nope, no more burned soup. Miss Jennifer B. called mum to see how the fixing of the stove was going mum asked her if she was the one that bought the stove she said no it was not she. Me, Possum and shelter mum say thanks Miss/Mr. Anonymous for our new stove and no more burned duck soup.
  Miss Iliana comes to help on Thursdays she brings us water when she comes. Miss Iliana decided she wanted to sponsor Bandita and Delilah so she is their not so far away far away mom. Pictures of them are on our site too. The girls have so much fun playing with their far away mom.

Possum Here: we got word that 489 of you went to our webshots site to look at our pictures, that is so great that you go look to see what is going on here at the shelter. Miss Mindy has been really busy keeping the web site up and running. There have been all kinds of glitches so she has had to spend time fixing them. Shelter mum says she is such a blessing to put all the hours into our site for us. Thanks Miss Mindy!

Suzie Q Here: Hey Possum don t forget we need to tell about Ferret Only Clinic day; Miss Mindy has all that information up on our site now so you can go here to see what is happening. Clinic day is coming up fast! Well Possum I think we have all the notes shelter mum left us covered and then YOU RE important information because you stay awake is done so we better close this news before Mr. BIG tells mum our news is too long to go on the FML!

Possum Here: Mr. BIG will not tell mum we can not put our news on the FML he just rolls his eyes and fixes it so it will fit.

Suzie Q signing off until next month.
Super Snooper Trooper Senior Reporter signing off until next month too!

Possum Here: Hey Suzie, did you see the nice email we got from that Miss Kathy that stayed here with us that week we could not spend time in Mum s space?

Suzie Q Here: Yes I did and considering how RUDE YOU were I would say Miss Kathy was very gracious to say the very least!

Possum Here: Well. Well don t you sound like the big shot; you re not! I got lots of nice emails from lots and lots of humans that said I should not have been kicked out of Mum s space!

Suzie Q Here: You also got some that told you to get a grip and stop complaining, or were you going to ignore those? You re not going to ignore them because I am going to make sure everyone knows you got them kind too. Mum even said you were a snot.

Possum Here: Mum did not call me a snot! Did she? For the humans that have not seen or heard about this week here is what Miss Kathy sent to US!!!!

Dear Possum and Suzie Q--and all the Fur Kids,
  Thank you for sharing your home and your mom with me from Tuesday to Friday! You're right, I really liked talking to you, holding you when your Mum selected someone for me to hold, and learning about your TERRIFIC life in your home! I live with a shelter cat Hannah and a rescued standard poodle Lily and know how important it is that some human help you four-footers out when other humans are careless and thoughtless about the four-footed world. Your Mum and the Posse are very special people, to be sure. I am going to figure out a way for this non-ferret person to be helpful to your Mum and you fur kids in the very near future. You know I did leave her a few meals in the freezer so she has some goodies to heat up on an especially busy day - I'm not sure when it is not busy! Soon Old Lady Kay will be in a safe home and not share your Mum with you, but then Possum and Suzie Q, you will have to send out a call that your mum is looking for some other work to support herself and the wonderful ferret home. It's never easy to share, but you and the rest of the gang were very generous this week. Thank you so much! Miss Kathy

Suzie Q Here: Look at that Possum and you were rude and crude!

Possum Here: My Mum told me I needed to tell you and your moms that I need to start learning how to eat crow! So here is what I sent to Miss Kathy and the long tailed Hannah.

  Dear Hannah, Now I am not real sure what eating crow means but Mum says that with all the complaining I did about giving up Mum s space to play in while your mom was here with us, in spite of all that complaining you and your moms are going to be Titch s far away family. You guys are going to help Mum take care of the new kid that came in last week. I know what that is like, because I have a far away mom too. So Mum says to tell you I will be eating crow for breakfast, lunch and dinner for the next few days. Thanks for helpen Mum take care of Titch

Suzie Q Here: Don t forget Miss Kathy also sent Mum a message that she was going to actively work on getting Mum her not for profit status. She has experience in this kind of stuff so if Mum can get her act together, Miss Kathy will get it done.

Possum Here: Hey everybody did you see what Suzie Q just said about Mum? Wow Suz usually is yelling at me for stuff like that! Okay there is more news to tell too so here we go! Miss Iliana was here to help Mum when Miss Kathy was here, so she got to meet Miss Kathy. A new kid came in; his name is Titch. Miss Kathy got to hold him just minutes after he arrived; she looked at mum and said , He is skinny. Not any more Miss Kathy! Mum has him fattened up good. Chloe and Izzy have gone to live with their new 4-ever family! Pam and Greg taught Mum how to make their version of rice pudding, it is THEIR FALT mum is becoming a chucky monkey again! The girls live in Miss Julia s room with Miss Julia, Pam and Greg play grandma and grandpa to them.

Suzie Q Here: My turn to tell some news Miss Jackie R came to help Mum and is painting some of our trim, and cleaning like Mr. Clean again. Ginger, Joe and Carl came to see Mum and all us kids, they helped move us around when shift change came. Oh! Oh then Miss Jackie and Mr. Bob (Miss Jackie s other half) surprised mum with Sunday dinner last week, roast beef, potatoes carrots and everything. YUMMMMMMY Miss Iliana came over again the next week too, she comes every Thursday for Mum, she is like a tornado she comes in does what she does and leaves 2 hours later! Sometimes mum thinks she is dreaming it only when she looks at the play rooms and the empty yucky buckets she knows Miss Iliana was here! Miss Jackie has been taking some of our laundry home with her to do it for Mum so Mum can keep up; we have a pretty full shelter right now so Mum does not have as much down time/catching up time as she did a few months ago.

Possum Here: Mum got notified that 415 of you humans looked at our pictures last month. Mum also got a check from IGIVE for $44.59. Thanks everybody for helping Mum to take care of us though iGive.com A new baby boy came in needing mums help, the little boy died 7 days after arriving here, he was only 14 weeks old. Mum says when it is not so raw and hurtful I can go into more detail but right now she says she needs us to let it be. There was a contest to name him; he did have the name Piglet before he left for Rainbow Bridge So Suzie do we have all mum s notes covered?

Suzie Q Here: It sure looks that way Possum so for now we need to close this news.

Suzie Q signing off until next month.
Super Snooper Trooper Senior Reporter signing off until next month too!

Suzie we forgot a very important report in our news yesterday, but I think this is better anyway it will get lots of attention!!! Miss Lisa and Mr. Peter have Baby Ferris living with them from our shelter; she wrote to remind us that her Mom is going to be on Jeopardy this coming Friday the 19th. If you remember in one of the newsletters we told you that this was one of Miss Lisa's dreams of a life time! Way to go Miss Lisa! We will be cheering for you!
  Possum and Suzie Q

Suzie Q Here: See Possum I told you! Didn't I tell you Mr Big was going to have a cow with the really long news letter last month? I know I told you Mr Big was going to have a cow! Look what he put at the bottom of our news on the FML last month!
  [Mooooo]

Possum Here: Suzie will you get a grip! What is up with you? Mr. Big was just teasing us with that [Mooooo] Geezzzzzz you re really loosing it these days, are you okay?

Suzie Q Here: Well how am I supposed to know if Mr. Big is kidding?

Possum Here: Because if he wasn t kidding the news would not have gone up on the FML silly! Now let s stop goofing around or Mr. Big will have to [Mooooooooo] again! The new little girl Hope that came in needing immediate medical attention is now doing well thanks to all the people that helped get her there and home. Hope got to go to camp and spend the night with Miss Donna before she could get her to our favorite doc on Thursday morning. Miss Stephanie and Mr. Tom brought Hope back to Mum; Mum got to meet the new Miss Nickles, Alex. Mum says she is really tiny and looks just like a 2 legged furless kid only in miniature. Mum even held her for a little bit. Mum says she is a cutie, and she thinks Tom and Steph did good getting this kid.

Suzie Q Here: Mum held little Alex? Wow that is really something! Possum, they did not GET her they HAD her.

Possum Here: So what! What is the difference?

Suzie Q (throwing her hands up in disgust! ): I give up! Anyway after Hope came home she had to go back up to doc again because she was sick again. She came home, and then went back to doc. So Hope was in the hospital 3 times in 3 weeks and Possum s Posse was right there helpen. Miss Donna D, Miss Stephanie N, Mr. Tom N, Miss Mindy H, Miss Jackie R. and Miss Mary M. Hope is home and doing well all because the Posse was there to help mum make sure she got where she needed to be when she needed to be there!

Possum Here: Hey Suzie did you say Miss Jackie R? You mean she is back? Hi Miss Jackie. I am waving at you, welcome back! Miss Iliana, Miss Donna, Miss Mindy, Miss Genevieve, all came to help Mum. Then Miss Brie came to pick up her Loka to take her home to their new house. Mum had Loka here until her mom got their new house settled. She is home with her mom, happy to have a new house to investigate. Miss Janette was here that day too. Miss Janette was sad because her Breezie went to Rainbow Bridge. Mum told Miss Janette all she had to do is come find someone here if she wanted. Oh yeah then we had the Talledo girls here, too.

Suzie Q Here: Hey Possum we have clinic day secured with our favorite doc. Anyone interested in knowing more can see it here . so if you are looking for some fun this summer you can come hang out with us on Clinic Day.
  Mum had a home visit to do for Chloe and Izzy. They picked a family so Mum went to see if who they picked and where they are going to live were ready to have them come home with Mum. Miss Donna went with Mum; it was WAAAAAAAAAY out in the sticks so Mum was glad she did not go by herself. Any way Mum was pleased with the things they had done to make their place safe for Chloe and Izzy. There were just a few things that needed to be complete, so it looks like they will be going to their new 4-ever home this coming weekend.

Possum Here: Chloe and Izzy's not so far, far away. Mom will get to see them one more time before they go. Miss Ilana was sad last week when Mum told her the girls may have a 4-ever home, but Mum and I have been putting our heads together and we think we are going to see if Miss Ilana will want to be Braveheart and Hope's not so far, far away mom. She was the one that went to go get them when they needed saving.
  Miss Kathy is going to stay with us for a day or two until she can secure a place to stay while she is here going to appointments with Old Lady Kay. Mum enlisted Miss Jackie to help get the place ready for a non-ferret human visitor to stay with us. Mum has renamed Miss Jackie to MISS MR. Clean! She made this place look like it has not looked since before we were here. Miss Jackie runs rings around Mum when she cleans. Thanks, Miss Jackie!

Suzie Q Here: So Possum what do you think? Do we have all the news covered? It looks like it to me!

Suzie Q signing off until next month.
Super Snooper Trooper Senior Reporter signing off until next month, too!

Possum Here: HAPPY, HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYBODY!!!! Man it was a great Christmas here at the shelter. The Giving tree Santas sended us fur kids lots and lots of presents. We got the thank you notes and pictures sent out to all our Santas. If you did not get a thank you card but sended us presents let Mum know. Thanks everybody for helpen our Mum take care of us. We love our presents! Thank you to all the Giving Tree people that make the Giving Tree possible!

Suzie Q Here: Don't forget some of them Santa s sent Mum stuffs too, so thanks for helpen us take care of our Mum!

Possum Here: Mum went to spend Christmas with her grand kids up in Hilton, NY. She spended the night up there, Christmas morning she watched her 3- 2 legged furless grand kids open their presents. T hen she came home to us. Miss Jill W. came to check on us Christmas Eve and then Miss Shirley R came to check on us Christmas morning. Miss Sheri took care of Old Lady Kay Christmas morning so Mum would not have to do that when she got home. Mum got home about 11 am to get us all up to hang out with her.

Suzie Q Here: Then after Christmas we had more Christmas. Miss Michelle and Mr. James L came to see their far away kids, Mau and Marshmallow. They brought gifts for their far away kids and lots more for others, too! They picked Bear II off the Giving tree so they gots him presents, and because Snowy Bowie is Marshmallow's cage mate, they brought him presents, too. Then they brought a BIG bag of goodies for the rest of us shelter kids and a bag of goodies for Mum too. We had lots of fun checking out the presents, you can see us doing that. If you click on the giving tree icon, you will see the giving tree kids and their presents, or if the kids are sponsored, then look in the sponsor link to see them opening their presents. This is the message Mum got from Miss Michelle after they got home from visiting us.
  Brenda Thank you so much for your hospitality. We enjoyed meeting each of the ferrets. James especially had fun playing with Delilah. I forgot to explain one of the gift bags. In one of the bags was a ferret shirt, hanging tunnel, and itty bitty cuddle cup...these are all gently used (washed) items that I figured you could add to your used inventory on the website. Also, there is a large fish tunnel that is for all the ferrets to share! Thank you again for having us, we enjoyed our visit immensely. Please tell Mau and Marshmallow that they are even more adorable and sweet in person.
  -Michele and James

Possum Here: Miss Donna, Miss Ilana, Miss Genevieve came to help Mum.; boy did that time off go fast! The Ricciardiello family came after Christmas to start the adoption process; it looks like Izzy and Chloe may have a new home. The Carvalho family came too. With all the visitors we had over vacation Mum s time went really, really fast.

Suzie Q Here: When Mum went back to work on the Big Yellow Thingy on the 4th our world turned upside down. This is what happened. Mum s week started out by being asked if she would do Andrew's run because he was sick with the flu. Mum s attitude is she drives a Big Yellow Thingy so what difference does it make what route she runs? Mum s normal morning run is simple with 2 special needs kids that go to Honeoye; Mum gets back in time to come home to move us kids before she has to go get Old Lady Kay. So the subs get the easy runs: the old timers like Mum get to take the longer more complicated routes when the regular driver is out sick. Doing Andrews run means Mum gets to drive in the dark up over the hills on winding dirt roads with no street lighting guessing where the next stop might be. It also means she does not get back until 8:05 so she can not come home to move us kids before she goes to get Old Lady Kay. Our week had already started to fall apart. Then Mum put her Big Yellow Thingy in the ditch on Tuesday afternoon on her way back to the barns from her last run, so she did not get home from work until after 6 PM! See traffic was heavy going both ways so on a straight away of the road, Mum pulled over to the side to allow traffic behind her to get by. She had one more student stop to make. After the traffic went by, Mum started to pull forward to return to the road, only as she pulled forward her rear wheels slid in the snow and went into the ditch. The ditch being more than a few inches deep allowed the bus to slide into it ,then listing to the right. Mum was real glad she and the student had their seat belts on cause they were sliding off their seats in the same direction the bus was listing. Mum does our soup and meds at 6 pm so she was scrambling to get that done, get second shift kids put away, and third shift up. It was after 7 when Mum completed all that. Mum was so pooped and stressed she gave up cleaning third shift cages until morning (no kids in them).

Possum Here: MY TURN TO TELL SOME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Mum was behind the 8 ball on Wednesday morning, and the electrician decides that is the day he is going to come fix the light in the ferret room (no main lighting in there since before Christmas). So Mum shut down 3 of our play rooms so she could take the barriers down! She wanted the electrician to be able to come and go without climbing barriers, or letting us kids out or stepping on us. It was noon before he was done. That is just one hour before Mum has to go back to work, so now she wants to get the floor steam mopped before the cabinets and cages are put back in place. So Mum shoos the electrician out and tells him she will clean up the mess. Okay life is getting back on track! EXCEPT--While the electrician was here Mum gets this frantic call from a person in her past life that has 2 ferrets that need Mum s immediate attention BUT this person could not get them to Mum she wanted mum to come get them. Mum has to leave for work in less than an hour (there are 4 drivers out for various medical reasons so calling in and getting a sub was not an option). All the subs are already working. Mum had the floor cleaned but not enough time to put things back in place because she needed to see if she could find someone that could meet up with this person to get these fur kids. Mum had been trying to get some lunch between all these phone calls coming in from people that wanted to adopt and or to dump ferrets and oh yeah J.W. show up at our door. Mum just loves the lady that stops by but she always seems to manage to come when mum has the least amount of time to stand still.

Suzie Q Here: Mum did finally find someone that would meet up to get kids (Possum s Posse at work) so off Mum goes to work. The shelter is still not done but at least Mum has things put back in place. No cages are clean but the kids were not going to be in them till she gets back from work, so she can do that when she gets home. The new kids get here about 6 PM ; the little girl has a mass between her hind legs the size of a tangelo. Mum sets up a sick pen away from the shelter kids to isolate the 2 of them until she can get them to our favorite Doc. Mum gets our meds done, cages cleaned, second shift kids put away and third shift up. Mum gets on the phone to our favorite Doc; the new little girl has an appointment Monday morning. Both the new kids are happy, severely adrenal is Mum s guess but they also smell like cedar so they were living in shavings and OUT SIDE ! Mum says she needs a day or 2 to catch up. Oh, she also needs to find the new kid a ride to our favorite Doc because they want her there at 8 am Monday morning! Mum does not get done driving the bus until then.

Possum Here: Miss Iliana was who met up with the person that had the 2 new kids, when the kids sent Miss Iliana a thank you telling her they are happy to be here warm and safe but had no names; Miss Ilana named them Hope and Braveheart. Thanks Miss Iliana for helping Mum save 2 kids, and giving them great names! Oh, Miss Donna took little Hope to Our Favorite Doc on Sunday morning; Miss Mary told Mum she would meet Miss Donna at the office so Hope could be there when our favorite Doc got in to work. The week is over and Mum feels like she has been run over by a truck! Miss Donna comes in Saturday to help Mum get the shelter back in shape. When Mum can not run behind us to clean up after us , this place starts looking like she eats bon bons and watches TV all day! Miss Donna told Mum not to worry. Sshe would help make it all better! She sure did, she and Mum worked really hard all day Saturday picking up toys steam mopping floors, putting down new poopy papers. The place looked great by the time Miss Donna left. Mum gets another call from some people that got their hands on a little albino girl that was going to be set out to the trash because her owners did not want her any more. Mum told them bring her on in. Sunday morning the craziness starts all over again. Miss Stephanie and Mr Tom came down to see us and bring us fur kids things. Mum thought she was going to get to meet Alex, the new 2-legged furless kid they had on Christmas day, but Alex got to stay home with her grandma. Then the Boudet family came to see about adopting a fur kid, so before they left they had Ellie all packed up and going home with them. Then the Carvalho and Ricciardiello family came again to play with the fur kids that they have fallen in love with. Miss Genevieve came next. What a day we had with all these humans coming in to see us; NOT ME MIND YOU! I jumped and danced and NO ONE TOOK ME OUT OF MY CAGE TO PLAY WITH ME.

Suzie Q Here: So Possum let me ask you, do you want to go live some place else and give up your senior reporter job to me?

Possum Here: WHAT? WHY ARE YOU ASKING SUCH A DUMB QUESTION?

Suzie Q Here: Because Possum, the fur kids that are being taken out of their cages are the ones that will probably be going to their new 4-ever homes, if you are picked you will have to give up your senior reporter job to me.

Possum Here: Nope! No Way am I giving up this job to you!

Suzie Q Here: Then quit your complaining! We have got to close this news; Mr. Big is going to have a cow when he sees how long this is this month. He will be telling mum she needs to fire us!

Suzie Q signing off until next month.
Super Snooper Trooper Senior Reporter signing off until next month, too!