Hi.  Today is the anniversary of when I took in Marley and Renate.  Both
were malnourished, neglected fuzzies I ended up with through my work at
the vet clinic.  Their owner called us at 3:30pm on November 14, 2001
and said he had a very sick ferret who had been losing weight, having
diarrhea and not eating for MONTHS.  I didn't really understand why he
wouldn't have called us MONTHS ago if he was going to call at all, but I
offered him a 4:30 appt that day.  He said that was no good, so I offered
him a later appointment (we are open till 8pm Thurs and Fri, and this was
a Thurs).  He said he didn't have time to bring her to the vet b/c it was
his birthday, and he was going out.  This blew my mind.  He said "maybe
I'll just keep the good one (her brother) and let her die".  I somehow
politely explained to him that just b/c the other ferret wasn't
exhibiting any symptoms, didn't mean he didn't have what the other ferret
had, and that they should both be checked out.  He said he had better
things to spend his money on.  Maybe he would let his kids deal with it
when they came home.
 
I, thinking that his kids were at soccer practice or something, said
"when will your kids be home?  Maybe I can make an appt for them", and he
said "one's away in the Navy, and one's at college".  What did he mean,
his kids would deal with it?  Did he mean they could clean the dead body
from the cage?!?
 
I offered to take them in myself for free if he would bring them to me.
Again, I got the story of how it was his birthday and he was going out so
didn't have time.  I offered to come to his house that night, b/c I
couldn't leave the hospital.  Again with his birthday.  I offered to
drive out to get them the next day and he said "that's no good-we all
work and leave early in the morning".  I said "how early, I'll come at
4am if that's what it takes".  He then said he'd give me the girl, but
the boy was his little buddy, so he'd keep him.  I dreaded the idea that
this man had pets or kids or anything alive in his care.  I reiterated
that the boy could be sick, too, and also explained that ferrets can get
very attached to each other and that of they were separated after all
this time, the remaining ferret might go into mourning and get sick from
that.  I might have told him anything to get these animals away from him,
but I was at least trying to be honest at that point.
 
After a half hour on the phone with this guy at our very busy clinic, I
finally lost my polite customer service tone and said to him "let me get
this straight-you'd rather let this animal die than bring her to someone
who'll take her off your hands for free because it's your birthday."
His wife came home; I could hear them talking in the background in
Polish.  Whatever she said finally convinced him to say "I'll bring them
there-both of them".  An hour and a half or more after he said he'd be at
our clinic and I thought he'd never show, he showed up with a very small,
poop and pee encrusted cage with one big boy, discolored orange from
malnutrition, and a very tiny, emaciated, dehydrated, poopy little girl
who probably wouldn't have made it through the night had he kept her.
 
The guy barely stayed long enough to give me his phone number so I could
call later to make arrangements to get their stuff from him or ask about
vaccine or vet history (I later called his wife, who said she'd send me
paperwork and never did; I gave up), and these two and a half year old
ferrets didn't even have names, though he did call the girl "little one"
in Polish sometimes he said (does anyone know what that would be in
Polish, anyway?).  To this day I do not understand what made this man,
who obviously had no intention of doing anything to help the sick animal,
call a vet, or what he expected us to do over the phone, but I am
thankful for the power that finally convinced him to take that extra
five minutes on his birthday to drop them off on his way out.
 
We separated the two ferrets, threw out their cage, gave the boy a bath
(he reeked of feces and pee) and some nice ferret food (threw out the
crap the guy brought) and did full PEs on both.  The boy was fine other
than dirty ears and long nails.  The little girl got blood tests
(amazing, since she had no veins to speak of) with low BG and not so
great numbers on a Big 4.  She weighed 248 grams.  We cleaned her up,
trimmed nails, cleaned ears, gave her subQ fluids and started her on
an A/D diet, which perked her right up.  The little ferret who came
in almost dead gained weight and woke up overnight.  She became quite
spunky and ate like a pig once offered nutritious food.
 
After a couple days, Marley, ADV-negative and eating well, came home
with me.  Renate, as I later named her (it means "reborn" and seemed
so appropriate) stayed hospitalized a few days longer on a regimen of
fluids, A/D and kibble, Flagyl, Amoxi and Pepcid, three meds she would be
on almost the entire five months I had her.  She eventually got to her
biggest weight of 660 grams, but her weight fluctuated the entire time
I had her and she was generally underweight and in the 400s, and it was
no surprise with her necropsy findings; what was surprising was that she
lived as long as she did and as fully, and only her spirit, I think, and
the love we had for her, got her as far as she went.  She turned out to
have so many medical problems that she only had five more months on this
earth, but those five months were full of life for her.
 
She had nights when I didn't think she'd make it, and that last night I
held her all night knowing for sure she wouldn't make it to another, but
she had more days of playing!  (I cried the first time she ran though a
tube), snuggling with three brothers (she would have nothing to do with
the boys at first, even her brother, and would go out of her way to bite
them and chase them off, so for Christmas, I got my present early when I
found her and all the boys snuggling on Thanksgiving), following her new
mommy everywhere-she would just wait at my feet till I was ready to pick
her up, and enjoying life as she probably never had before.
 
She passed away in her sleep in the incubator when I was working at the
clinic on Good Friday last year, and I still miss her every day.  But I
know she knew love, and it was worth every dime we spent trying to make
her well.  Her necropsy showed adrenal tumors, insulinomas, lung plaques,
cobblestoned bowels, ulcers, etc-she was never stable enough to do an
exploratory without high risk of killing her-but on her good days, she
was the toughest, spunkiest girl I knew, and she was always a fighter.
Those big boys of mine followed her everywhere and she was definitely
the feisty boss!
 
Marley fit in quite well with my boys, and is quite the ladies man since
we added two girls this summer.  He is no longer stained from bad food
and is a beautiful, fluffy teddy bear ferret.  He is the most gentle
ferret I have known and never gets into trouble (though he does like to
poop in doorways on occasion, especially if the door opens inward and
there's carpet to mush it in to!).  He is loving to everyone, and mellow,
but when he does decide to wrestle or war dance, it is that much funnier
b/c it's kind if out of character!
 
I am thankful every day for these two being brought into my life.  Happy
Anniversary, Marley.  And to you at the Bridge, Renate.
 
Dooks,
April AC, Shawn and Finnegan, Nicodemus, Cora and Shannon
[Posted in FML issue 3967]