On July 18th of this year, I had written my very first post here on the
FML entitled A Ferret that Collects POSTCARDS?!?!  Some of you may
remember this story of my first-loved ferret who is named Emmett Sheets
(yep, that ferret with a first and last name).  [For those of you who may
have missed it or are new to our list, you should be able to pull the
original post up in the archives.]  Emmett has been collecting postcards
for the last two years now.  This started out as my way of letting him
know that I was thinking about him even when I was traveling and could not
tell him so in person.  At the end of my post I had teased at the idea of
inquiring if any fellow FML ers would be interested in sending Emmett a
postcard for his collection.  Surprisingly, many of you responded and have
sent him postcards from your neck of the woods.  I would like to thank
the following people for taking the time and having the interest (or good
intentions of doing so) to send Emmett a postcard/s.  Thank you for
accepting our belated yet very sincere Thank You s!
 
DONNA CHRISTEN from Wisconsin
Fuzzies Include:  Bandit, Zeus & Jalepeno; Crimson & Clover; Sadie &
Jasmine; Fenris & Frey; Aphrael & Flute; Theodore Edward Bear, Blossom &
Freya; Puma & Frack; Prometheus, Romulus & Remus; Epimetheus; Lily & Poppy;
and her  angeled ferrets:   Hera & Athena and Samson & Odysseus
 
PATTI RIGGERT from Oregon
Fuzzies Include: Ursula, Timon, Sebastian, Lucky, Jasmine, Stumpy,
Raphael & her five angeled ferrets
Other Four-Legged-Friends Include: Barkley, the dog and Gabby, the cat
 
SANDRA LANGE from Melbourne, Australia
Fuzzies Include:  Clover and Princess
Other  Four-Legged-Friend Includes:  Gemma, the cat
 
SARA SMITH from St. Louis F.U.R.R.Y. Ferret Club and Shelter
Fuzzies Include:  Spice Girl, Zeus, Taranis and many others, I am sure
 
SHARI GUNTER from North Carolina
Including:  Chipper, the ferret
 
KIT, HARLEY BEAR, DIXIE, STORMY & LILY: Founding Members of Kouri Fan Club
from Georgia
Many Fuzzies Included:  Kouri Fan Club & Club Members
 
DEB CAR from Minnesota
Including her Eight is not enough ferret crew and many foster ferrets
 
CHERYL from New York
Fuzzies Include:  Thea & Tajin
Other  Four-Legged-Friends Include:  Cuddles, the cat and Bagheera, Hope,
Thumper, Challah, Falcor, Glory, Pixie the Bunnies
 
Second-part of post follows.  BIG, thank you in advance for allowing me to
break up my original post that was returned to me due to exceeding the line
limits.  Hope this revised submission makes it through okay.
 
Audrey & Michael
Fuzzies:   Angeled  Emmett Sheets, Mimi, Bodie, Doyle, Daisy, Beau & Luke
The  Other  Loveable Animals:  Hazey, the dog and Julius, the cat
 
[Part two...]
The continuation of this post may not be for everyone, but I encourage
you to please consider taking the time to read what follows:
 
I am very saddened to let all of you know that Emmett Sheets, at the young
age of 4 has been the first of our seven to head for that fateful Rainbow
Bridge.  For the last two weeks, Emmett had been being treated for an
ulcer under the guidance of our wonderfully skilled, compassionate and
educated vet here in Columbus, Ohio.  I am sure that a number of you
have cared for a ferret with an ulcer or a similar illness, so you know
first-hand that a LOT of extra hours of loving, feeding, encouragement
and heartache goes into the added amount of care to get your ferret back
on the hopeful road to recovery.  I thank the Lord that we were able to
spend so many (unknowingly at the time) final hours a day with our Emmett
holding him, feeding him and continually loving him before he passed.
Throughout this past weekend, Emmett seemed to be coming back to us having
more interest in eating, eating more and watching his cagemates play
around him longfully looking to be doing the same very soon.  This past
Tuesday, however, Emmett s condition changed .  and quickly.  To make
short a 9-hour crisis experience, we received a phone call at 11:30pm
Tuesday night from the emergency vet s office that was treating him that
Emmett had not made it.  Unfortunately, we have received very little
explanation for what really happened to Emmett to cause him to leave us so
quickly and early in his life.  The emergency vet that had treated him (he
is very ferret knowledgeable and has seen 1,000+ ferrets in his lifetime)
stated that he had seen nothing like what the x-rays of Emmett s abdomen
had shown.  Emmett s spirit is in our hearts while his body is in a
freezer at our vets office awaiting for our vet to return from a trip from
oversees.  For the betterment of other ferrets who may suffer the same
fate, we hope that our vet may be able to find some explanation of what
went wrong in Emmett s lil body.  When we receive Emmett s body back, we
will bury him in our backyard with so many other furry friends we have
buried in the last 4 months: in June, we buried our 14 year old Chow that
we had peacefully put to sleep in July, we buried two ferrets of a friend
who drove from California to Ohio and who had sadly lost two of her seven
ferrets during the long drive in August we buried a puppy that we had
loved for 3 short days before her life had ended due to the cruel Parvo
virus and now we will be burying my first dear ferret companion, Emmett
Sheets.
 
LISA from our vet s office and SCARLETT GRAY & SHERRY WAGNER of HOFA:
Thank you SO VERY much for lending us your guidance and compassionate
hearts when we had contacted you about caring for Emmett.  You all truly
have hearts of gold [which I believe have many living and angeled ferrets
engraved on those hearts of gold]!
 
One more thank you to my significant other, Michael: Thank you, Thank you,
Thank you for being the person that you are and accepting me, my 7
ferrets, dog and cat into your life!  I am convinced that you were the
reason why Emmett lived as long as he did throughout his illness: His
goal in life was to war-dance on you every morning in bed until you felt
terrorized by him but in the end, Emmett had his way with you as I told
you all along, what it is that he wanted to do was simply to Weasel his
way into your heart which you so lovingly and graciously allowed him to
do in his final weeks with us!  I love you, Michael!
 
In the next few months, Michael and I will be creating a scrapbook with
pages commemorating each of our current and angeled pets.  It goes without
saying that we will be including Emmett s infamous Postcard Collection
amongst the many pages of his stories and pictures of him throughout the 3
years that he has been such a special part of our lives.  If anyone would
still like to send a postcard in his memory to add to his collection, it
would truly ease the burden of loss in our hearts.  Our address is as
follows:
 
IMO:  Emmett Sheets
c/o Audrey & Michael
2030 County Road 156
Ashley, OH  43003
 
Thank you all for taking the time to read our lengthy post,
 
Audrey & Michael
Fuzzies:  Angeled  Emmett Sheets, Mimi, Bodie, Doyle, Daisy, Beau & Luke
The Other Loveable Animals:  Hazey, the dog and Julius, the cat
[Posted in FML issue 3554]