Dearest Sara Ferret,
 
I'm sorry to say it's necessary to ask you to greet two prescious little
souls at the bridge today, Toby and SweetPea.  I told them both about you
Sara......they'll be looking for you in your official greeters uniform,
hat and signature halo.
 
In an unusual coincidence, both Toby and SweetPea were blind here in the
land of the living.  Toby was an 8 year old sable boy who was bald in the
middle.  It broke my heart that Toby was surrendered to the shelter in
his advanced years and even more so when it turned out that he was only
to stay with us a couple of weeks.  I know they were happy weeks though
and was glad I could do that for him.
 
Toby had a little stuffed ferret that he treasured above all else.  He
slept with his ferret and when he moved from one bed to another, his
ferret came with.  For an old boy that couldn't see anything, I was very
surprised to see that when Toby came out to play, he would go into his
cage, get his little ferret and bring him out to play too.  He would set
him down, run off, come back to him and move him to another location and
this would go on and on.  I guess he was making sure his stuffed ferret
had play time too.
 
Toby will be easy to recognize - he'll have a big wide kissable nose and
will be carrying a little brown stuffed ferret in his mouth.
 
SweetPea, aka Sweetie The Pea, was 8 1/2 years old.  She lived a long
ferret life and I was blessed to bring her into our home when she was 5
years old.  SweetPea weighed only 5 ounces when I picked her up from a
dog rescue in Columbus, OH.  She was covered with fleas and I was not at
all sure she would make it.  Having to go on a business trip, I left Pea
in the capable hands of my animal hospital for 4 days.  When I picked her
up, she had gained two and a half ounces and was living the life of a
princess, being spoon fed her soupies every couple of hours.  It was all
I could do to get the staff to give her back to me!!
 
She continued to make progress and became a beautiful marked white ferret
with dark ruby eyes.  But Pea did not like other ferrets.  She did,
however, find a friend in a certain black kitten named Maia who lived
350 miles away.  Pea and Maia visited only twice before I knew they had
to be together and off she went, my little Sweetie The Pea, to live in
Illinois with her kitty friend and "other mommy".
 
Peeps had an unusual favorite stuffed friend......a baby rattle
caterpillar.  Now being a ferret, she had a hard time pronouncing
caterpillar - it came out something like capadillar.....so she called
him Pillar.  Piller moved around a lot.  He would be in the bed, and
then the hammock.  He would be at the food dish and I kid you not, we
would find him with his little mouth up to the water bottle, soaking wet.
In fact, Pillar was wet quite often as Pea groomed him regularly.  Every
once in a while he was even found in the litter pan....I think that meant
he was in trouble.
 
SweetPea eventually lost her sight, had a tumor behind one eye and this
summer came back to me with little fur and a big belly full of something
needing surgery.  Her "other mommy" knew that she would get the best
medical care with me and once again, we did what was in her best interest
in spite of what it did to our own hearts.  She had surgery to remove a
left adrenal as well as a right adrenal that was bleeding into her tummy
and she recovered very well.  She had an active 6 months with me until it
was time to leave just yesterday.  I am certain that she will cross the
bridge with Pillar in tow.
 
There are literally over 100 ferrets from our "business" and from "other
mommy's" business, many of whom SweetPea will be familiar with and who
I'm sure will make Toby feel like he's always been one of the family.
The group will most likely be led by our ambasador of good will - Ren
Ferret.
 
Be healthy and whole my little treasures.  Come back and visit the
SweetPeas I planted by the mailbox in your memory Peepers.
[Posted in FML issue 4704]