As we are trying to cope with the latest snow storm of the season (nice
April Fools joke), shelter mom is getting ready to say goodbye to her
little girl Lily.

We "adopted" Lily from Petco several years ago, when she was returned
at the tender age of 14 weeks, because she nipped. We were in the store
doing Ferret Education, and were told that they were going to send her
back to Marshall's since she was a "nipper".

Mom fell in love with her at first sight, and she went home with us
after we packed up. Lily quickly acclimated into our family and
eventually took on the nickname of "Halfpint" due to her size. HP was
so much fun and the sweetest little girl you could ever ask for. She
never nipped either of us, even when we would wrestle with her. Someone
really missed out on a great pet and friend when they returned her.

In the last month, HP started to exhibit signs of Insulinoma, and since
she is now almost 6 years old, we figured it was about time. She also
developed a very large spleen and became anemic. With the proper dose
of Pediapred, she seemed to be fine and things went on as usual. A few
days ago, she started coming out of her favorite sleeping spot, and
just flopping down on the floor. She was alert and would respond to us
when we asked her if she was ok, but she would just lay there. We were
told to up her Pred dose, and put her on antibiotics for what the doc
thought was some infection. She seemed to respond to the new meds for
a couple of days, but still did the drop and flop. She still took her
soup when we gave her the meds, and seemed happy when we interacted
with her.

Yesterday (3/31) mom took her to the vet for a BG checkup, and things
went south from there. The vet had trouble getting blood from her, and
poked her 6 or 7 times. This seemed to be too much for HP, and she
crashed. Along with the stress of being at the vets office for 2.5
hours (way overbooked), having our dog there for removal of stitches
and another ferret that she didn't know seemed to be too much to
handle.

After stabilizing her as much as they could, mom brought her home and
tried to make her comfortable. After taking care of the shelter and
medicating the kids, we talked about the next step on this journey for
Halfpint. We realized that she had fought this thing off as long as she
could, and she was tired. We spent the rest of the night cuddling with
her, told her about the Rainbow Bridge and asked her to tell all of our
babies to wait for us.

Before I went out the door for work this morning, I found HP and said
my goodbyes, told her I loved her and gave her kisses for her and our
other kids that were going to meet her.

After mom gets up and takes care of the "kids", she will make the trip
to the vets office with Halfpint alone. I wish that I could be there,
as I have personally held most of our kids, (personal or shelter) when
they were given the shot, but mom will have to deal with her girl
without a shoulder to cry on.

Please keep shelter mom Crystal in your thoughts, she is going to need
it today!

Sara Ferret, please make sure that Lily makes it to the bridge, and
that our kids are there to greet her. I know Digger will be glad to see
her, as we just lost him a few weeks ago and they were buds. Lily's
face will be wet with tears and kisses to pass out to the others, like
Linus, Rustle, Seth, Bear, Maggie, Sophie, Oliver and too many more to
mention.

Jim Kennedy, Director
Ferret Rescue of Maine
A State licensed, 501c3 Non-profit shelter.
Donate to shelter ferrets by clicking
igive.com/from

[Posted in FML 7020]