2009 Summary
Sorry, this post took longer than expected to put together. You might remember that we had the initial numbers for ‘09 done just a few days into the new year. However life through us a couple curve-balls, so we didn’t get a chance to finish that thought earlier.
Maybe next year we’ll get both done early!?
The short is that this year was all over the place. Here are a few of the key events of 2009:
- Directors and shelter move to a new location
- Built the new shelter location from the ground up, right around the time of the show (only one week beforehand!)
- Organized our 2nd AFA-sanctioned ferret show
- Rescued 50 ferrets from a local animal hoarder
We had plenty of new challenges last year too:
- A tough fall and winter of medical issues from the above rescue and from a hard flu season
- Reduced adoptions because of the economy
- Increased surrenders because of the economy
- Reduced grants because of the economy
Basically our budget dropped by about 18%, the average of number of ferrets we care for more than doubled (it was ~28 and is now about 65), and our per-capita medical expenses increased.
The good news is that we’d been preparing for the possibility of moving into a new location, a large emergency rescue, and a floundering economy, for some time. While we didn’t expect to have to deal with all three in the same year (!!!), things have held up surprisingly well.
In the end though, there only one reason that the shelter has held together through the madness of 2009 — our volunteers. We’ve been so lucky to have met people who were more than willing to fill in the gaps before everything came crashing down. Our long-term volunteers and the new have been awesome. From helping us move everyone & everything, to cleaning, sending out postcards, donating bedding, toys, metal hooks, etc. the amount of help we’ve received has been amazing.
Here are few key generosities we’ve received:
- The Show in July was as successful as last year’s despite the economy, very organized and smooth
- We had a new HP laptop donated by BC & TC which rocks! We can now update our database right from the shelter, saving us lots of time.
- Help with daily maintenance that’s allowed to have a little free time and keep us from losing our heads!
- We even got to take a 3 day vacation, thanks to RV who was willing to care for the over 83 animals (5 species!) while we were gone! You deserve a trophy!
- Petco Foundation for helping with our big rescue by providing an emergency supply of food and litter, Totally Ferret for sending food before anyone ever asked, International Ferret Congress for helping with vaccines and funds for surgery, and individuals who sent extra gifts during the holidays, etc.
- Everyone who painted, moved, cleaned, organized or volunteered during the big move and the show.
It’s really hard to show just how appreciative we are of generosity like this, especially during hectic times. We just hope that we continue to provide an organization that provides ferrets and their community services that you want to keep being a part of.
Looking back there are many things we wish we were planning on improving but that we just didn’t get to because life got in the way. We’re keeping them in mind for 2010! We improved the shelter quite a bit, just not in the ways we expected. 
If you have any question about our shelter, or 2009, don’t hesitate to contact us.