We are looking for a volunteer to update petfinder to match our website. We’d just need you to check every few days to be sure all the ferrets match. We can show you how to update the site, login and upload photos. It really is a piece of cake. If you think you’d like to volunteer for this task, please email us at info@emmettferret.org

~Laura & Bill

Here is a list of winners from the Boise Ferret Show. It isn’t quite complete, because we aren’t sure who won a couple rings, but once we get the complete list from the AFA we will repost with updates.

CHAMPIONSHIP RINGS:

Companion:
Ring #1: Milan owned by Paul & Cathy Hamlett
Ring #2:
Ring #3: Kazakoba owned by Erika John
Best in Class: Kazakoba owned by Erika John
Best in Opposite:

Alter:
Ring #1: LW’s Annabelle owned by Sara Hamilton-Yotz
Ring #2: JBF’s Bellino of FPK owned by Suzanne Hamilton
Ring #3: JBF’s Bellino of FPK owned by Suzanne Hamilton
Best in Class: JBF’s Bellino of FPK owned by Suzanne Hamilton
Best in Opposite: LW’s Annabelle owned by Sara Hamilton-Yotz

Breeder:
Ring #1: LW’s Mirabella owned by Sara Hamilton-Yotz
Ring #2: MMF’s Black is Sinful of FTN owned by Nancy Park
Ring #3: SH’s Ichi-Ban of WWW owned by Paula Woodland
Best in Class: MMF’s Black is Sinful of FTN owned by Nancy Park
Best in Opposite:

BEST IN SHOW: JBF’s Bellino of FPK owned by Suzanne Hamilton

SPECIALTY RINGS:

Sable: MCF’s Sanostee owned by Linda Gurule
Black Sable: HTF’s Luther’s Jumping Bean of FPK owned by Suzanne Hamilton
Blaze/Panda/Mutt: Rosco owned by Beth Stanley
Albino/DEW: Nadia owned by Jill Score
Champagne: FTN’s Mr. Rex owned by Nancy Park
Chocolate: Tigger owned by Bonnie Cole
Point: LLR’s The Fonz of FTN owned by Nancy Park
Roan: JBF’s Bellino of FPK owned by Suzanne Hamilton
Black Mitt/Black Roan Mitt: MMF’s Poleycat Zoey of FP owned by Jessie Molan
Mitt: FPK’s Tinkerbell Lady SapphFire owned by Suzanne Hamilton
Super Senior: SH’s Ichi-Ban of WWW owned by Paula Woodland
Physically Challenged: FPK’s PassionFire Princess Ciaobella owned by Suzanne Hamilton
Shelter/Rescue Jills: Milan owned by Paul & Cathy Hamlett
Shelter/Rescue Hobs: we know its one of Jessie Molan’s ferrets, just not sure which one exactly

Queen of Show: HTF’s Luther’s Jumping Bean of FPK owned by Suzanne Hamilton
King of Show: T.C. Chaser owned by Jessie Molan

Hi all,

Believe it or not, we’re still putting things away from the show! Rubbermaid tubs of all sorts of supplies are now finding homes in the storage nooks and crannies of the ferret room. On a quick tally, the shelter raised about ~$1500 although we haven’t paid out for the judges, ribbons or trophies yet to know the exact numbers. Thanks again to everyone for your support and help. It was big day for our little organization and I think all of our legs and backs could attest to that!

In order to get ready for next year, we’ll do some mock training to get more judges ready for specialties (starring shelter ferrets), teach everyone the fun events, and just run through things now that everyone has a better understanding of how things go. According to the group up in N. Idaho, we already have more attendance than their shows and it is only our first year. We could really potentially gear up for quite a large showing down the road. I’d like to think it is because we try to make a connection with our adopters. Without our great adopters, we wouldn’t have anyone to host a show for. I would like to make a tally of the adopted ferrets who did well at the show so we can post that for everyone to see.
I’d also like to congratulate everyone on the condition and health of their ferrets. The judge from back east commented on how clean all the ferrets were and how well they were taken care of. I think all of you really impressed her; I know you impressed Bill and I.
We will be hosting a post show picnic-get-together for our volunteers who worked at the pre-planning, set-up, or who had a role at the show as a small thank you. Look for an email down the road. (And to the out-of-towners, know it’s for you too even though you can’t make it!).

All in all, I think we are all impressed by the event and we’ll make a goal for a more efficient show.

July 11th 2009.. here we come!

Laura, Bill, Cathy, and Paul — your show hosts.

Hi all,

Thanks to our volunteers and donors, things are moving right along. Thanks again everyone!

It’s three days before the show. Now is the time to do ferret ears and nails. Then remember to bathe them Friday night and do ears again!

All Friday Set-up volunteers should report to the fairgrounds around noon or call 608-9567. I will be back and forth to and from the shelter. Friday stewards and judges should be at the fairgrounds no later than 6 if possible for judges training. We will do pre-check for your ferrets Friday evening if you are able to come help out at 7am Saturday morning to save you time.

People may set up ahead of time after the building is arranged ~ probably 4pm or later. We will twitter if this changes.

Any questions, just call the shelter 398-8244

Laura & Bill

EFS

Sorry we’re delinquent with board meeting notes.. the show is eating up most of our time! However, it should be a pretty good time for everyone. We have lots of dedicated helpers this year.(Thanks Guys!)

There is a funny ferret video contest!!

funniest videos of the FML contest. Deadline
for submissions is rapidly approaching - get them in to Danee DeVore
(ferrets4all@cox.net) no later than July 15. All specifications can be
found online at http://www.ferretcongress.org. Click on Lights! Camera!
Action! for complete details. And, get those video cameras out and the
videos in! Let everyone see just how great that little fuzzy really is!

The most respected names in ferretland could see your ferret!!

Laura

Hey everyone!

If you are attending the show or are interested in attending the show. There was a spot that opened up in the chocolate specialty ring. If you are interested in showing a ferret in this ring, the cost is $8. Championship rings also can still be entered. If you are interested in this open spot, please email crazyloggers@yahoo.com

Thanks!

Cathy: Boise Ferret Show Registrar

Hey everyone!  It’s Cathy  from up in Moscow again.  Just figured I’d give people an update on what’s going on with the show planning and with shelter stuff in general.

With the show registration, it is finally complete.  Now while it doesn’t seem like it would take much to record data, it really is quite time consuming.  Think of having to input data for 80+ ferrets, which includes the ferrets name, DOB, color, sex, sire, dam, breeder, title, owner’s name.  Now with petstore ferrets its simple because the names are shorter and there are  no sire and dam to list, but with private bred ferrets (which is at least half the show field), its a lot of typing, and lots of complicated names.  With the data entry I have 3 master lists; one for companion ferrets, one for alters, and one for breeder/adolescents.  Along with those lists I have actual class lists as well for alter, companion, breeder/adolescent, and then lists for all the specialty classes.   At times its hard to remember what is what.

But most recently in the past 2 days I have finished up most of the show entry work for the show.  I emailed Laura all the information she needs for the show book, so now all she has to do is copy and paste and she’ll have all the info she needs for the different classes.  I also alphabetized all my main show lists and now all ferrets are assigned their entry numbers.  For those of you who haven’t been to a show before, each ferret is assigned a number at the show, and all day long that is the number your ferret will go by.  We assign numbers because it is easier than reading off a list of names, and it also makes judging less biased, because people won’t recognize who the ferret belongs to.  We also ordered all the show ribbons and they should be getting mailed to us on July 1st.

For those of you who haven’t attended a show, here are some good things to know.  When you show up in the morning, have your paperwork ready at the door.  Vaccine and ADV paperwork need to be checked before your ferrets enter the show hall.  So your first trip into the building should consist of you, your paperwork, and your ferrets.  Once that gets taken care of you can select a spot to setup your stuff, then you can return to your car and bring in your cages, etc.  When you do check in the morning of the show, after your paperwork is verified, you will receive your paperwork, which consists of your ferrets names and their corresponding entry numbers as well as their carrier tags.  If you have any last minute scratches or substitutions that is the time you need to tell me.  You’ll also receive a copy of the show catalog at that time.  Once you get through check in, you’ll want to set up your cage or playpen (remember no playpens larger than 8 panels, and they must have a mat underneath them).  Then once you get your little ones taken care of, you can roam around the show hall and meet the other ferret owners.

Some items to remember to bring with you to the show.  Carriers, litter pans for carriers, litter pan for cage/playpen, litter for pans, litter scoop, food bowl, water bowl/bottle, bedding for carriers and for cage/playpen, extra bedding in case accidents occur, toilet paper/paper towels to clean up accidents, nail clipper, nail file, cotton swabs, money for raffles and auctions, ferret’s paperwork, and most importantly the ferrets themselves.  You also will want to bring something to carry ribbons home in, because if you win a few and don’t have a way to transport them home, they often will end up getting all bent or stained.  A paper grocery bag or small plastic container work well.  A handy way to cart all your stuff to the show is either is a larger plastic storage container, or cloth bags.  I recommend packing a day or two before the show and keep a checklist, that way you remember what you need.  And most likely no matter how hard you try, you will inevitably forget something, it always happens, ask me or Laura about that, we always are borrowing things from each other.  It’s hard enough remembering stuff for yourself and ferrets, and when you add shelter things to the list, its hopeless.  If you do happen to forget something, you can always ask around, odds are someone has it and will let you borrow it.

Now on to other updates.  So even though Quad City Ferret Rescue doesn’t really exist anymore, we still deal with sheltering and for now I like to consider ourselves an extension of the Emmett Ferret Shelter.  We currently don’t adopt out any ferrets, but we will take in surrenders if the need arises.  Currently in our house right now we do have one shelter ferret that we are rehabbing for Bill and Laura down at Emmett.  Her name used to be Blackfoot, but we renamed her Cocoa.  She is an older private-bred girl who had a horrible biting problem.  Paul and I have been working with her over the past couple months and she has made great progress.  She was one of the ferrets that was getting transferred from Ferret Rescue of North Idaho down to Bill and Laura.  While she doesn’t like other ferrets, she sure can be a sweet older lady when she wants to be.  We may also be getting in another ferret sometime soon, from a person who actually contacted Bill and Laura directly, however they live up in northern Idaho.  It’s one of those situations where someone didn’t want the ferret, gave it to a friend, who doesn’t really know what to do with it, so they contact a shelter.  But if we do get in that ferret, both Cocoa and this new ferret will be heading down to Emmett with us when we go down to the show.

On a more personal note, its been a rough year for us with our own ferrets.  So far this year we have had four deaths, some expected, some unexpected.  It’s one of those things you just never understand.  Our boy Bristol, formerly known as Singy, died earlier this year.  He was one of the Vegas ferrets, he was fumigated in a past home, he died of internal cancer.  He has tiny little eyes and was blind, but he loved life and lived to be about 7-8 years old.  Then we lost three of our “ferret room gang”, so they are down to six in number now.  Iffy was the first to go in the spring, he was never healthy from the start, he passed on at the age of 4 from intestinal lymphoma.  Then in April we lost Bear, who was only 3 1/2 years old.  He died on the table during adrenal surgery, due to a heart defect, that one was the big shocker.  You never expect to drop 3 ferrets off at the vet for routine surgery and leave with 2.    And then most recently we lost our boy Hackett, aka Hackeysack.  He was only 3 years old, but was riddled with all sorts of internal cancer.  Most people have at least seen a picture of Hackett, he was the ferret that was photographed laying in the beans.  Laura is still selling prints of that picture as a shelter fundraiser.    So we’re hoping the rest of the year goes better than this spring has.  It’s hard to see such young ferrets die from terminal cancer and there’s nothing you can do about it.

If anyone has any questions about the upcoming show feel free to email me at:

crazyloggers@yahoo.com                    or

quadcities@emmettferret.org

If you’ve tried to send a preadoption form in the past week, even if it looked like it worked, it didn’t work. We had to make some changes following our server upgrade. I think everything is straightened out now, so if you try again we should actually receive it this time! Sorry for the inconvenience.

Bill & Laura

We have three small show-size cages that we are selling for $15 each. They retail at $90. These would be great travel cages and show cages.

We also have carriers we can lend for a deposit check (we will not cash unless the carrier doesn’t come back) so that those of you without a carrier for each ferret can be prepared for the show.

ADV testing day will be JULY 29TH at EFS from 2-5pm.  We will be “open-house” from 2 to 5 and will be prepared to do ADV testing for anyone needing it. We can help do ADV tests at other times, but are hoping to attain a discount for everyone by submitting many at once. RSVP at 208-398-8244

~EFS

Show coordination and volunteer meeting at Smoky Mountain on State in Boise, Idaho at roughly 6ish. Please RSVP with the shelter by writing to info@emmettferret.org.  We will be signing up for show duties, mastering planning and schedules and talking about materials we will need, etc. You are welcome to buy dinner while we are there (we always do).  See you there