Ahhhh… beautiful Niagara Falls….

Check-In… a great place to start.

Vendors sold goodies, and wonderful ferret stuff…

Brenda Johnson gave a talk on alternative sheltering…

Cathy Sitek on Ferret Dental Care… what an awesome presentation!

Julie Fossa led the discussion on Post-Surgical care…

Danee DeVore gave a great talk on ADV… a difficult topic handled with grace and sensitivity.

Judith White… Healing with Reiki. Judith gave everyone at the table apersonal Reiki session and we were awed by this woman's touch!

Alicia Drakiotes gave a talk on Enacting Ferret Friendly Laws…

From the FML

Date: Mon, 23 Sep 2002 19:14:27 -0700From: Judy Cooke <fertsrfun@YAHOO.COM>Subject: Forum Thank You's!!

The Forum at the Falls is now behind us and I just wanted to say thank you to a few special people.

Our speakers, Alicia Drakiotes on Enacting Ferret Friendly Laws and Brenda Johnson on Alternatives to Sheltering. What great presentations these ladies gave! Thank you!

Also a special thank you to our Gold Sponsors: Purina/Mazuri and The ferret Store and our Bronze Sponsor Parrots of the World. Without these fine companies behind us, we wouldn't get very far!

To our Table Topic Hostesses:

Cathy Sitek on Ferret Dental Care - what an awesome presentation! Thank you Judith White on Healing with Reiki -Judith gave everyone at the table a personal Reiki session and we were awed by this woman's touch! Danee DeVore on ADV-a difficult topic handled with grace and sensitivity. And Julie Fossa giving tips on Post-Surgical care.These four women did a wonderful job and I'd like to thank them all!

Also, Lynda Galloway and Francine Prager - not only helped with registrations and other tasks, they also played tour guides! Thank you Ladies! You did great!!

And last, I'd like to say a word about the IFC committee itself. No one person was responsible for this (- and hopefully many more) event. This kind of event is something than cannot be done alone. It takes teamwork and each of us trusting the next person to do their job. So I just want to take a minute to thank Julie Fossa for her work on the raffle, sponsors and vendor tables. She quickly and quietly does her job and helps to make us look good! And to Linda Iroff... the glue that holds us together! Her organizational skills not only make the registration process go smoothly, but she helps to keep me grounded! Also to Betty Janner... another big hit with the Tee shirt design! Thank you Betty, you are awesome! Oh... I will take a little credit for the meeting space and the food... the cheesecake was incredible!!!

On a person note, I'd like to say that for me, the highlights of the event were getting to see Laurel Dittman's awesome ferret Tattoo!! WOW! It is incredible! And.... watching our Veterinarian attending from Maine win the Ferret Nightlight donated by Ferrets Anonymous-what a Vet!! What a Light!! And last... being able to add a few new colored pages to my coloring books! LOL! Thanks guys!

Anyway....a very big thank you to everyone who had a hand in making this event a success!! And especially to the attendees....without your support, none of this would have been possible!

Judy Cooke

Date: Tue, 24 Sep 2002 14:53:33 +0000From: New England Ferrets <neferrets@HOTMAIL.COM>Subject: Thanks for the Forum at the Falls!

On behalf of New England Ferret Foster, Education, and Rescue, Inc (NEFFER), I'd like to thank the International Ferret Congress and the chairpeople who put together the Forum. NEFFER attended in the form of Vice-President Catherine Bell and Secretary Heather Wojtowicz, and we had a fantastic experience all weekend! Brenda Miller's presentation on "Alternative Methods in Sheltering” generated some great dialog among the crowd and brought up lots of ideas for involving the community in rescue work and finding alterative ways to help shelters other than the traditional ones. Brenda gave us some examples of ways her community helps her, and we are going to "take a page out of her book" and see if we can't work some of the same magic here in our region!

Table Topics at dinner were very enjoyable! At my table, Cathy Sitek gave a great presentation on dental hygiene and led a discussion on the topic that gave me a ton of information that I'm passing on to my fellow ferret lovers back here in Western Massachusetts. All of the women who led Table Topics really knew their stuff and gave their comrades some serious food for thought.

Alicia Drakiotes' "Building Better Laws for Ferrets" presentation was nothing short of brilliant and she also gave us all the tools anyone would need to start down the road of changing laws to better protect our fuzzy brethren. Alicia's presentation facilitated some great interaction on the topic and she answered many, many questions on this topic and offered some vital pieces of information. NEFFER is exceptionally grateful to have been present for this talk and to have gained this invaluable knowledge from Alicia. Guys, bring her back for the Forum 2003!!!

And yet more thanks to the organizers of this event, Linda Iroff and Julia Fosse and Judy Cook...thanks ladies for leaving us some time for sightseeing!! Our tour guides gave us a great trip to the Falls as well as souvenir shopping time! We ended the weekend by having a last breakfast with Linda, Julie, Brenda,Lydia Russell, and Alicia. Before we hit the road for the long drive home, we shared some last ferret conversations, picked each other's brains a bit, and had a few last laughs!

NEFFER also did very well on our table sales, as the crowd at the Falls was very much in "ferret-shopping" mode and was eager to snap up t-shirts, mugs, cookbooks, watches, cross-stitch patterns, and every other "ferrety" thing that the vendors had to offer.

It was an all-around success for NEFFER with some great contacts made and some sales that raised money for us to take care of a few surgeries that are waiting.

Thank you again International Ferret Congress and especially Linda, Julie and Judy. Let's do this again next year!!!

Sincerely,Heather Wojtowicz Secretary, NEFFER Inc.

Date: Mon, 23 Sep 2002 01:59:20 -0400From: Lynda <galloway@MERGETEL.COM>

Subject: Thank you I.F.C.Thank you for bringing a fun filled day of ferret talk, laughter and friendship to Niagara Falls. I was honoured to meet people from the F.M.L. that I have admired for their commitment and compassion for our furkids like Alicia Drakiotes and Julia Fossa and many more.

Brenda Johnson spoke about alternatives to shelters. She gave me many good ideas on fund raising and helping my shelters.

Alicia's presentation inspired me to look in into our local laws regarding pet stores and how to develop a presentation based on logic rather than emotions.

The food was great, the friendship even better! I am really happy to have spent the day with friends I made through the FML and finally met. Also to have made new friends through this Mini Forum.I have addy's of people in a 50 mile radius that may come together and start a club and eventually lead to a shelter. I also have addy's of people I just liked a lot...LOL...and hopefully will meet again.

Unfortunately a few people were absent because of medical problems. I wish you well and I am so sorry I missed meeting you.

Thank you, Lynda Galloway....eh!

Thank you to Lydia and the Ferret_R_Gang for putting together this slide presentation for the

International Ferret Congress web site.

Forum at the Falls, is just the first of many more intimately sized avenues for ferret lovers all over the work to gather together and talk about the animal that

moves them the most… the domestic ferret.

Keep watching for future events and dates that will be posted to this site. Thank you for making each of our

events the best that they can be! We’ll be sure to see you at the next one!