From the moment I set my eyes upon her, I fell in love.  She was scrawny
and tiny, missing patches of hair near the base of her bent and crooked
tail.  She had this funny little limp/hop that took my heart the first
time I saw it.  She was in a group of four ferrets that I was babysitting
that eventually became a part of our permanent family.
 
Bella was over 6 1/2 years old when we met her and the sweetest old gal we
had ever met.  Considering she had been bought and sold many times in her
lifetime, she was an adorable ferret.  Her only issue... she hated being
scruffed.
 
Once Bella came into our home, she and her three other cage mates were let
out of their cages to be free roamers.  This turned out to be the best
gift we could have given her, as Bella soon found her way to our bed, and
made it her spot to sleep in between our two pillows each and every night.
If we did not see Bella by the time we went to bed, we always found her by
the morning, sound asleep and cuddled between us.  She gave us joy beyond
joy.
 
We were able to fatten her and her cage mates up by supplementing her
pre-existing poor diet with baby food and Bob's Gravy, which she loved.
We had immediately taken them off the dry generic cat food they were being
given, and switched to higher quality foods.  There was no problem in
getting them all switched over.  By the end of the first month, I knew
that these ferrets needed to be with someone who wanted an animal to love
that would love them back, and not just a novelty "critter of the week".
By the end of the first month, we had managed to adopt Bella's cage mate,
Sammy, due to his advancing adrenal disease.  Sammy was to be euthanized
for a lack of funds... we could not allow that to happen.  Bella became
ours shortly thereafter when it was deemed that her advanced age would
also present expensive medical bills down the road.  Eventually we were
able to adopt them all, and that could not have made us happier.
 
Our prediction of future medical treatments came true when six months
later, Bella's lymphnodes under her jaw began to swell.  Luckily, the
nodes were removed successfully, but unfortunately they gave warning of
worst things to come.  Then she went into surgery to remove her left
adrenal gland and 6 months later, grew an amazing full lush coat.  She
was simply beautiful.
 
Bella was the most easy going ferret we had ever met.  When you cuddled
her, she would let you mold her into different forms.  My fondest memories
of her will always be the way she would grab her back legs with her front
feet and pull them closer in... it brought tears of joy to my eyes to see
this when she was alive... and now it brings floods of tears in the pain
of remembering...
 
A week before the ferret symposium, Bella began to show signs of weight
loss.  Ferrets always pick the best times to get sick... when the vets
are closed during holidays, or when we are preparing to leave for a ferret
symposium.  Hubby felt a small mass in her stomach.  I found an upper
canine had been broken off at the base.  I had three scenarios run through
my mind... Bad tooth prevented her from eating... needed extraction.  Lump
in stomach... a blockage.  Highly unlikely but not out of the question.
And the last one, my worse fear... that the lymphoma we had seen in her
nodes prior had presented in her stomach.  I am a positive thinker by
nature, but I also know I am a realist.  The last scenario was the worst,
but the one I felt was probably the most likely.
 
Monday morning, Bella was taken in and x-rayed.  Nothing particular showed
up.  Next step was an exploratory.  When could it be done?  We were
driving to the conference and it would take us two days to get to Las
Vegas.  We were to leave the next morning.  I made the decision to have
her stay at the vets until our return.  This way I knew she was in good
hands and amongst people who would know what to do in the event of an
emergency.  Monday night we took Bella home, getting food into her to
prepare her for surgery.  Tuesday morning, we dropped her off, with her
blood donor buddy, Gadget, and said our good byes... not knowing it would
be the last time we would see her alive again...
 
Through to Utah we drove, constantly thinking about Bella and doing our
silent prayers for her safe return to us.  Wednesday afternoon, the day
of her surgery, and 8 miles from the Arizona border, I called from a pay
phone from a Denny's Restaurant.  I knew from the sound of Jana's voice
that something was wrong... When my vet got on the phone, it was
confirmed... Bella was dead.  This poor little girl, who had given us so
much joy and laughter, had lymphoma in her stomach, and various other
illnesses throughout her body.  Our little girl, our little cuddlemeister,
had made it through the surgery, but had not made it out of recovery.
 
It was the hardest day of my life... being so far away from home, from
her, and not being able to see her, to touch her, to hold her, to comfort
her.  We were a lifetime apart although it had only been a day... As we
sat in Denny's, James and I cried as we held each other knowing there
was nothing we could do.  We had lost our bella Bella.  The waitress at
Denny's saw our grief and tried to comfort us... she was so very kind,
but we knew she would never really understand our loss.  Later I began to
realize that even had we not left for the conference, we still would not
have made it to the vet's office in time.  But at least we take great
comfort in knowing that Bella did not die alone, and that she was
surrounded with our friends and a wonderful ferret vet.
 
Each day at the symposium we thought about Bella, telling only a few
people what had happened.  We did not want to bring a gloomy cloud to
the conference, yet we knew that these were the people we needed to be
surrounded by... the ones who would give us the comfort we needed.
 
Wednesday, yesterday morning, we brought her body back from the vets.  Now
we can put her to rest and grieve the way we need to.  Beautiful Bella...
you were nearly 9 years old but you had the heart and spirit of a kit.  We
can only hope we made the best of your last years.... you certainly gave
us the best of yours...
 
Missing you deeply... remembering you forever
 
betty and her blur o'fur
[Posted in FML issue 3687]