Just when you think it'll never happen to me, it happens.  Last night,
for no apparent reason, and after years of happy, peaceful coexistence,
my son's Husky suddenly, and without warning attacked and killed Baby
Girl.  It was over in a heartbeat, and happened right in front of my
eyes.  I have cried my eyes out and racked my brain as to why he did it,
and what was he thinking.  She must have dropped a Sugar Pop on her way
upstairs (she loved them after supper), and he is very protective about
his food.  He must have seen it and been going to get it when she turned
around to retrieve what she had dropped.  I heard a thrashing noise,
turned my head and she was convulsing in a pool of blood.
 
I cradled her in my arms and cried to her, caressing her while she
struggled for her life, but her skull was crushed and in a few
seconds, she crossed the bridge where she'll never have to worry about
that hairless little rat tail, or where she's going to find her next
Sugar Pop or raisin.
 
Baby Girl was a rescue.  All we've had are.  When we were running the
shelter, we would invariably fall for one or two and they'd know that
they had found their forever home.  She showed up on a lady's back porch
one night the summer of 2002, and my son, the animal control officer for
our city, went and got her.  We were in Alaska on a cruise, and called
home and he said, "oh, by the way, you have a new ferret." She was so
tiny but her heart and her eyes were the biggest in the universe.  She
would take every step I took, and for two years I went nowhere without
her by my side and under foot.  I don't need to tell you people how much
I loved her.  If you have ferrets, you know.  If you don't, you wouldn't
understand.
 
Sandee, please tell Baby Girl I love her.  I don't think she could hear
me in her last moments in my arms as her little body struggled across the
bridge.  Tell her Dakota didn't mean it, he just reacted.  Tell her
Widget already misses her, and has looked for her all day today.  Tell
her her daddy sits here crying like a baby while he types this, but needs
to tell someone.  Tell her to look for Scooter, and Major Burns and tell
them "Hey!" for us.  Tell them we miss them and love them as much as we
came to love her.  How is it that you seem to get along with one of your
kids maybe better than another, but you find the same amount of love for
the fur covered members of the family??
 
Sorry this is long.  Take care of your pets, and give them a squeeze for
Baby Girl tonight.  Never, I mean never take your eyes off of the larger
animals that share your home with you and your ferrets.  Enjoy them while
you can.  They so quickly can be taken away.
 
Baby Girl, I'm sorry.  I loved you, and miss you.
 
Tuck  Kemper
 
"If you can read this, thank a teacher;
    ... If you are reading it in English, thank a soldier."
[Posted in FML issue 4590]