Oh how right she is - when a ferret lover gives up having ferrets
because they can't handle the pain, more ferrets suffer for not being
able to join that loving home.

I do believe, and it might be just my love of ferrets, it is harder to
lose a ferret than a dog or a cat as, when they are sick, they are just
like children, cuddling to you for protection.

Sometimes the way we look at things makes a difference to our
pain........we have a lot of foster homes here who take the old and
medically challenged. They know they will see the end soon but they
give them the best they can, the love, the warmth, the playing, the
being apart of a family. When the little tyke dies, they won't let
themselves think of how they will miss that ferret but rather what a
life they gave them while they had them, how they brought it out of
its little shell or nursed it back to health or just held it and felt
what ferrets generate in us. They feel good they were a part of that
little life even though it left them sooner than they wanted.

Once I was told it is not what is in another person (animal) is that
makes us love them, it is what is inside ourselves, our capacity to
love. Like any other talent we have, that has to be exercised, used,
and shaped to guide us in life. And, for me, I still miss many of the
animals that have been in my life, miss them a lot but I wouldn't take
for the memories I have of them, the joy, the pride, the fun. I KNOW
the life they had with me was enjoyed by them as well. It is this that
drives me on to help more, not to take their place but to be a part of
a life and make a difference to it.

I urge everyone who comes to that thought where they feel they just
can't take another death in their lives to look inside themselves, see
the good their animals produced in them, and think of how they can use
that good to help another animal. Please don't put up a shield to not
feel again, don't go through life a blank and at the end regret you
didn't live life to the fullest both in joy and in sorrow.

Millie and her ferrets and Danes
www.txferretrescue.org
** 

[Posted in FML 6690]