Dear Bridge Greeters,

You have helped my babies out before when the first one we loved very
much, Jack who was one of the last rescues we took in but was the first
to cross the Rainbow Bridge. I've only been rescuing for around 7 years
now and starting with Jack who died of old age and IBD, Adrenal Disease
and Insulinoma...well he was quite old at around 8 so maybe I put old
age in front when it should have been in back. Next was our sweet and
lovable Lil Bit who escaped the safety of their camper trailer and
into the dangerous outdoors and tragically was attacked by a stray dog
(we assume) and she died in my arms. I'd searched all night long until
day-break and after a short drive around the neighborhood returned to
their camper. I found Lil Bit trying to dig her way up into the inside
through the floor. She was all muddy and bloody and after a quick rinse
off in warm water I could tell she wasn't going to make it and she died
in my arms in less than 30 minutes. You folks greeted Jack and helped
him with his mound and then when Lil Bit came across the bridge you
helped her find Jack so now they are together living happily waiting
for me to come for them.

Well, we had another tragedy that has taken our beloved Sam earlier
than he should have had to leave to cross the Rainbow Bridge. We run
2 A/C units in this little camper although one will keep it nice and
cool because if for some reason one of them should quit working there
is another one to continue to keep it cool until it can be fixed or
replaced as needed. Two weeks before my payday one of the A/C units
quit working and it had already been repaired once so it was decided
that it would be replaced this time when the money came in. Payday
was Friday, July 1st and that was going to be a busy day because my
daughter was to have knee surgery at 09:00 AM in Houston, Texas about 2
hours away. We left at 04:00 AM and all went well but we decided to get
her prescriptions filled in Houston because she was already starting to
feel the pain and was uncomfortable, this took a whopping 3-4 hours to
get filled! We made it home so I could check on the ferrets at about
03:30 PM and when I open the door I was hit in the face with this wave
of hot air, later to be determined to be a sweltering 95 deg. F.!!! I
ran in to find ferrets spread out all over the cages bearing their gums
and panting hard and fast! I quickly checked the A/C and found the
problem immediately and got it back on in less than 10-15 seconds...it
was a breaker switch on the power strip the A/C was plugged into along
with ultra low amperage electronic equipment, IE: laptop power supply,
cordless phone, Internet modem & wireless router. Next I found that
Sam had passed out from the heat so I picked him up and tried mouth
to snout resuscitation on him for long enough to know that his body
temperature was way too high for him to have survived and he wasn't
responding so I turned my attention on the others that were alive. I
first turned on the water at the sink and started grabbing ferrets
as fast as I could and quickly soaked them down and returned them to
their cage grabbing two more and so on until I'd wet everybody down.
I then turned their box fans around so they were blowing into the
cages instead of drawing air out. I have them drawing air out normally
because it pulls out shed hair and reduces the chance of hair
balls...this is a little tip for anyone who has very many ferrets in
one cage. Sam was the only soul lost that day and I had their new A/C
in the window before the next day's sun had a chance to heat anything
up, plus I now have each A/C on their own new 30 amp breaker so this
should never happen again! We are soon to have a new home built on
this property through a home grant program our city applied for and
won and if all goes as expected, the ferrets will have a bedroom of
their own until I can build them a new building designed just for
them and connected to the house. We may need donations for the ferret
room/building and a generator for power outages like when hurricanes
come in close to us as we are on the gulf coast of Texas and lose
power for weeks at a time during a hurricane strike or near miss.

Our Sam was the only ferret I ever knew that would bungee jump! I'd
given them an old "SlimLine" phone, cord, base & receiver when they
had their cage in the upper bunk sleeping area with a door enclosing
it. Sam decided that the phone was his and dragged it around with him
everywhere by biting onto the coiled cord by the receiver. One day he
decided he wanted to be down in the rest of the house but wanted to
bring his phone with him so he jumped off bungee style and the cord was
just perfect in length for him to bungee jump and from then on it was
common to see Sam come flying off the edge of his cage with phone in
mouth! One day I noticed he'd been chewing off the buttons so I had to
take it away from him and it was a sad day for all of us! Now Sam is
gone and he'll be crossing the bridge looking for Lil Bit and Jack so
please help him out to find them.

Sincerely,
Micheal Forrest,
Ferret Rescue and Adoption of South Texas
www.ferretrescueandadoption.com

[Posted in FML 7126]