Please don't be so hard on yourself. You didn't lock him into the
barrel, right, he could have left it...............if he had been a
healthy ferret, he would have gotten up and out..........your hubby
already had seen some evidence he wasn't acting right before this and
you yourself knew he wouldn't come out for his dinner........he was 9
or 10 years old, you had to have been doing something very right for
him to have gotten that old and he surely was way past normal life
expectancy.

Sure it was sudden and there is that question but try to rely on common
sense that everything is pointing to other things going on which caused
this to happen too. It hurts and there isn't much others can say to
eliminate that right now but I think all of us have some time we
weren't watching for signs and paid the consequences, it's human
nature, you can't be attuned to everything all the time.

Personally, when I get those balls in, I won't sell them or give them
away as they are, it is unnatural for their backs but I do either put
blankeys in there or balls, toys, and put them in a pillow case. I sew
the end of the pillow case around the tube connectors where they can
come and go and/or protect their domain from other ferrets entering and
they love it. I have not had a problem with them overheating and like
other toys they play with it awhile and then off they go. I feel very
confident when I am suggesting he felt sick and that was why he didn't
come out not because he overheated - usually with heat stroke you see
blood from the eyes, ears nose mouth rectum........they bleed out their
paws get very red, there are a lot of symptoms.

Again, please don't be so hard on yourself.


Millie and her Danes at the
Texas Ferret Lovers Rescue

[Posted in FML 7517]