[Moderator's note: Posted by Wolfy for Rebecca McFarlane.  BIG]
 
Bilbo came to us last January in the Minnesota rescue kids that we
adopted.  He was a little old guy already, and blind.  We saw a bump on
his tail, and we were watching it.  The night April brought him, Eowyn,
Arwen, and Storm to us, his name was originally Big Boy, but that was
changed.
 
Bilbo acclimated quickly, loved the tubes, but discovered this HUGE love
of chicken gravy.  He had been in a cage by himself, but was brought into
a mixed group where he became the master and commander.  He'd get out,
and his best place to be was on the futon, under the blankets, and God
help any cat that was up there.  He'd route them out of his area so fast.
You'd hear a cat yowl, see them flying, and he'd be standing there, this
triumphant look on his face.
 
The bump on the tip of his tail started to grow, and at night we'd hear
him crying, whether in pain or nightmares I was not't sure, but I talked
to my vet, and out he went.  The vet thought it was a chordoma, and so
removed it.  I was supposed to keep the tip of his tail bandaged.  Right.
Ever try to nail jello to a tree?  That's what keeping a bandage on his
tail was like!  Less than three weeks later it was back, huge, splitting
open and bleeding.  Bilbo's weight suddenly dropped, and the crying
became more frequent.  I took him out again, and this time we decided to
'dock' his tail.  So Bilbo looked, as my daughter liked to say, like a
little gopher.  He quit crying, and his sleep became fantastic.
 
I started school the beginning of January, plus working a lot of
overtime, and so my husband has been helping out by taking care of the
ferrets for me.  I see them the most on the weekends now (out of the
cages, I mean).  Last Saturday I was exercising and playing with Bilbo's
group, looked at him and almost fainted.  No weight, a walking skeleton.
I asked Larry when did this happen, and he said it was like a day before.
The problem was he forgot to tell me (he suffers short-term memory).  I
picked Bilbo up to find a huge, hard tumor on the back left leg, and on
the skin at the end of the penis two small tumors.  I called the vet
first thing Monday morning, and out Bilbo went.  The vet thought a shot
of depomedrazol(sp?) would stop it, and to watch him.  I told Larry
chicken gravy, every morning and I'd do it every evening to bring the
weight up.  Monday night he was walking.  Tuesday night, he could barely
walk, staggered.  I called Larry at work and told him, Bilbo's not going
to make it.  So I sat that night and talked to Bilbo about the Bridge,
about all the other members of the Crew of Merry Mayhem there, and I
told him how badly I wanted him to stay, but I didn't want him to hurt
anymore.  Wednesday morning Larry called me-he'd gone to give Bilbo his
gravy, and my little old man couldn't sit up.  So I was getting off early
to go to class, had our daughter bring him out, and we made that trip to
the vet that I hate, but was necessary.  I drove, talking to him all the
way, barely able to see the road through the tears.  They got us into a
room right away, the vet came in and examined him.  His mouth just fell
open and he told me, it had already spread, that he could feel the
tumors.
 
So he prepared the shot and I told Bilbo again all about the bridge, that
he'd be able to see, and he'd get his tail back, no more pain, no more
cancers.  H e laid his little head in my hands as the vet gave him the
shot, and one paw went over one of my fingers.  My daughter was there,
and she just kept her hand on my shoulder while I talked to Bilbo, told
him to run as fast as he could, and that I knew he was almost home.  When
he quit breathing, I told him, you're home now, you're safe.  My vet was
almost in tears, and held him, cuddling him.  He's going to biopsy the
huge tumor to check on what it was exactly.
 
And so the little one who became Bilbo Baggins, who came from whatever
bad situation, has gone to a ferret's Gray Haven-the Rainbow Bridge.
Sandy and Sara-ferret, will you check on him for me?  He came to the
Bridge on Wednesday, February 4.  He's cinnamon colored, and his eyes
will be bright, looking everywhere, his tail long and furred.  Storm, one
of his mates from the same rescue who was a member of the Bridge will be
there to meet him.  Please make sure he's there, and that Spunky shares
the gravy with him.  Tell him how sorry I am that I couldn't keep this
damned disease from him, that I couldn't save him.  I miss his kisses,
and then his ankle bites.
 
Rebecca & the Crew of Merry Mayhem
"Do not meddle in the affairs of dragons, for thou art crunchy, and taste
 good with ketchup"
"Support bacteria, it's the only culture some people have"
 
[via] Wolfy
[Posted in FML issue 4416]