November 2009

[Kalimata]

This is a short and sad blurb from James.  On Friday, I had to say goodbye to two very good, very special friends.

We've had Mr. Goliath since 2007 as a permanent foster man.  He was such a wonderful and special little man.  His absolute favorite thing in the entire world was "Adventures with Dad", where I would take him out places, and he would putter, off the leash, because he never ran.  We had a little "Duck Soup" ritual where after I was done stirring the soup before microwaving it, he got to lick the fork.
Mr."G" as he was lovingly known, had an adrenal tumor which kicked into overdrive.  While he was still sorta active, the tumor was the size of a mandarin orange, and he was rapidly losing weight.  We went on a final adventure, and then I went to feed him some soup, and he didn't want any of it.  That said, that little man ate treats, and guzzled down ferretone for the entire night.  At 15:00 on Friday, I had to take my little man on the start of his Ultimate adventure.  After a final treat of ferretone, and final hugs and kisses from his mom and dad, Little Mr. "G" was put to sleep.  It isn't fair, and it isn't right, but we can only give them the best we can, for as long as they can.  I love and miss my big boy "G", I'm hard pressed to remember a ferret who was as sweet, and such a good friend as him.

We knew it was coming with "G", but the Gods just decided to kick me real hard that day.  I cam home at about 06:00 on Friday after work to find BooBoo lying on the floor under the wall unit.  He had blood oozing out of his mouth, and tar black stool on his bum.  I pulled him out and he was very obviously dying.  I cradled my little BooBoo-LooBoo (as his dad nicknamed him) while we raced to Crown Pointe, and held him close while we waited for them to open.  Darren wasn't in, but Anne, bless her threefold was.  BooBoo couldn't even have his final taste of Ferretone I always give to my babies going to sleep.  Much to my despair, BooBoo went to sleep, thanks to Anne.

Bless him too, Darren did a necropsy on BooBoo-Looboo, and found out that his liver was riddled with cancerous tumors, and one of the tumors had hemorraged.  He bled out.  There was nothing that we could have done.  That makes it a little easier, but the sudden demise of one of the babies is never easy.

I've lost so many, and it just never gets easier.  Good bye my little ones, see you all later.

A crying, very sad daddy,
James

[FuzzyWuzzy]

So sorry to hear about Goliath & Boo Boo!

[Fuzzie_fan]

October and November have been largely happy and uneventful months at this house.

Toby continues to be a big old love sponge and ambassador of goodwill (I actually have a client now who asks me to bring him along periodically just so she can say hello!).

Bob still hasn't found a new special friend she loves as much as Rio but she is now playing with the other ferrets in addition to playing with her foster mom.  She's a bit bolder now and will get her nose right in the pile at the duck soup bowl and her performance in terms of coming to the sound of a squeaky toy is improving.  Unfortunately she still shows a complete disregard for litter boxes except as something to climb over - fortunately she is adorable enough to be easily (and frequently) forgiven.  She's much better now at being tidy in the cage but I suspect that is just weasel peer pressure from the others who don't want to sleep near poo!

Frank and Margaret continue to settle in - Maggie took less than two days to settle back into all her old routines including drinking from the toilet bowl in the downstairs powder room - she's shy about it - I haven't managed to grab a picture yet but it cracks me up every time.  Doesn't matter how many bowls of water are available she wants the toilet!

Frank's transition back has been a bit tougher - his aggressive behaviour the first couple of weeks earned him shunning from the girls (except Maggie - those two clearly adore each other - they are like a little old married couple!) and a thrashing or two from Toby who is perfectly willing to be mauled and molested by Liberty but wasn't taking it from another boy in the house.  Once they settled that they became good buddies and can frequently be found snoozing together while Margaret is busy with other things!

Recently Frank has settled down quite a bit - Taz has stopped screaming at him and he's been part of the the collective ferret sleeping piles more than once.  Strangely, little Bob my most timid ferret has no objection to curling up with him - the fact that he's put on weight and has a gorgeous thick winter coat to snuggle up to may be an influencing factor!  But really he's only had a few lapses of biting (he's fast and he has an awfully good grip when he latches on) but they have been isolated and he's more like his old self.

Speaking of his gorgeous coat (and adorable face) - did anybody recognize on his first big modelling assignment?  yes, that was Frank on our Fall Frolic buttons.  No he was not delighted about the antlers (or the bells) but he was an awfully good sport and Jen was incredibly patient working with us to get a decent shot!

All the furbabies had a great time at the Frolic and would like to thank their wranglers who were there to have fun with them.  Seems five kids + one frolic can actually produce six very tired ferrets at the end of the day!  They are all proudly displaying their ribbons on their cage and hope their human friends will join them again in the spring to do it all over again.