The Christmas Giving Trees are wonderful ways to get essentials to
ferrets who might not be getting the toys, new blankets, treats, etc
that most people take for granted as they give them to their 'children'.
Those ferrets are usually safe and snuggly in a happy home and have been
that way for a big portion of their lives.  The ferrets on the Trees
however tend to be the 'orphans' of this world.  Most of them without a
permanent home, making a stop, or staying, at a shelter, many of them
counting off the days they have left before that illness they are
struggling with takes their lives.
 
While shelter Moms and workers the world over do their absolute best to
make their house 'home' to these People, a shelter, even one couched in
love, is still a shelter and most can't afford the luxuries many pet
owners lavish upon their loved ones without a second thought.  The Giving
Trees help fill that void.  As a shelter Mom, I know I look forward to
each and every gift and appreciate each one, almost as much as the
ferrets look forward to ripping open that box!  Thank all of you!
 
Perhaps that is why I find what happened today so distressing.  One of my
kids was adopted by a Santa but a gift never came.  I double checked with
Santa to make sure it had not been lost or stolen or even held up in the
Christmas rush of mail.  It had not.  My kids are very good to share for
the most part, but this particular Furperson was abandon at the local dog
pound a year ago.  As far as I know he never has never had anything all
his own.  Even haboured here, he never laid claim to anything as his,
was always willing and going out of the way to share.  He was a kind and
gentle soul.
 
The Thursday before Christmas he became very ill.  A trip to the vet
confirmed what I feared, a very aggressive cancer, prognosis; maybe won't
even last until Christmas.  But he did.  He bounced back, enjoyed the
Holiday, had fun helping the other Santa adopted ferrets open their
boxes, enjoyed tearing up the wrapping paper and stealing bows.  And all
the while I was hoping he'd hold on until his package comes......some
thing that can be his and his alone, some thing maybe he can take with
him when he goes.  I knew it would be soon.
 
I had to put him to sleep tonight.  As the doctor predicted when the
time came it came fast and would have been painful.  Thank all the stars
and good hearts of the world because she had sent me home with copious
amounts of pain meds for him, just in case.  When the pain started
tonight, I stopped it, and then I made that last trip to the clinic
with him.
 
Now I know he had no clue a gift of his own had been promised, and
generous soul that he was, probably would have felt no ire that it never
came.  But I know and am heartbroken for him.  How nice to have been
buried in his very own bankie with a new toy.
 
Please, if you promise something to a special child, two or four legged,
see that they get it.  And if you are one of the very many who kept that
promise, know it touched more than the one you sent it to.
 
To all of my Santas over the years, you've done much more than just touch
one heart.  I can't thank you enough.
 
Brenda, Momma to the FurpeopleWeyr
http://pages.prodigy.net/furpeopleweyr/index.html
[Posted in FML issue 4742]