i havent been able to bear to post it before.  last month we lost papaw to
liver failure.  we had cuddle time with him before he went.  he was with us
for only a month.  we have some friends that have 43 babies, and everyone
in town knows this so that when a fuzzie is in need they are called.  they
called us one friday night to ask if we had room for one, that they had
gotten him from the local animal shelter (who, by the way, were terrified
of him and kept him in a tiny cage in the furthest back room and did not
touch him, or give him play time at all and have since been educated) and
if we kept him in quarantine for 7 more days (he had been at the shelter a
week) we could keep him.  they said he was nippy and had bitten both of
them.  he was in the shelter because he was either abandoned or lost and
was being attacked by a cat, a little boy tried to pick him up to rescue
him from the cat, and, naturally, got bitten.  people are more
understanding of a dog that bites someone after it is hit by a car than of
a ferret that bites someone after being attacked by a cat.  the trauma is
the same, i think.  i knew he was very old, and i knew that he probably
wouldn't be with us long, but he never nipped me when we went to meet him,
and he cuddled in my arms for the longest time, how could we not bring him
home and love him?  he bit steve, my husband, 3 times in the first 2 weeks,
but never after that, and he never did bite me.  steve is the one that all
animals love.  and if he was going to bite, i would have thought it would
be me he would choose to bite.  but instead he blessed me with lots of
cuddle time.  he wasnt weak, but he didnt want to play very much, when we
let them all out for play time, he would come out, make 1 round of the room
to prove he could, and then he would go back in and go back to sleep.
 
that is all i can bear to say right now.  sandee, please tell him that we
miss him very much and we loved him dearly and still do.  tell him i am
sorry it took me so long to send him a message, i couldnt bear to say
goodbye.
 
robbie
 
there is enough devil in the best of us, and enough angel in the worst of
us, that it becomes none of us to speak ill of the rest of us.
[Posted in FML issue 2925]