After my first 2 took my heart with them to the bridge, I vowed to have
no more.  And for a year, I was ferretless as the laws in CA say I should
be.  No furry bodies dancing around my ankles, no bright little eyes
looking up at me in the kitchen begging for a raisin, no sound of little
ferret feet going from place to place stashing all their stolen treasures,
no lost objects being found in the last place you would look, no curled
up soft little bodies to watch sleeping.
 
I will never forget the first ferret I held after a year of being a
law-abiding CA resident.  I can only describe it as being given water
when you're dying of thirst, food when you're starving.  I ran my hands
through that soft fur, buried my nose in it and inhaled ferret perfume as
though I had been starved -- and got bit on the neck!  I felt like I was
home after having been gone for a long, long time.
 
I started with only one, I now have 7.  I didn't bring them into CA,
they're already here and they all needed homes; it seemed they just came.
One will be going in for his second adrenal surgery next week, one is bald
after having one adrenal surgery but now has cutaneous lymphoma and cannot
have another surgery, one is deaf with allergies and one is slowly going
blind.  And even though I know the heart wrenching pain is on its way, I
treasure each one and try to tuck away all the memories I will have of
them and the joy they have given me.  Pup, my deaf explorer, dancing in
the wind; Pogo, my socially challenged, mama's boy who loves to be cuddled
and carried around; Rusty, my flower child, who has been the bridge for
each newcomer; Sparky, my independent dark beauty who treasures freedom
above all else; Merry, who has a better sense of humor than most people
I know; the Tiny one, who is so petite and so fearless, and little Cleo,
who was cursed with adrenal and lymphoma, but never gives up as long as
she has soup and a warm sleep sack.
 
I don't know how I'll feel about having more after they're gone, but for
now, I'm enjoying everything about them, for they are amazing little heart
thieves.
 
Posted anonymously to protect the innocent in CA
[Posted in FML issue 3775]