I write this with a very heavy heart of sadness and guilt.  Last year I
took in 2 furkids, when their mom called me and said come get them before I
kill them.  The boy 'Tanookie', had torn off her right hand ring fingernail
and Tilly was biting even harder.  I had been working with her in stopping
the nip and bad bite stage.  She had gotten them in Nevada, at a pet store.
Both Marshall Farm kids.  When I was over at her house they never would
bite me, so I'm assuming she hit or kicked then, when they bit.  When I
went over and picked them up, I noticed Tanookie was dragging his entire
body by his front feet and he would only push with back feet.  At this time
I hadn't seen them in about a month and a half.  I smiled thru gritted
teeth and loaded cage, ferrets and anything that would remind her she once
had ferrets.  She wanted to see them about 2 months later and I said
'sure', then I left my house.  She came by, but I wasn't at home
unfortunately.  By this time I had worked with Tanookie and he started
walking and then dooking and then dancing.  He is now one BIG handsome guy.
Tilly his cage mate was a tiny Roan, white bibbed, white mitted little
lady.  At her heaviest, she would be 1 3/4 lb.  Tanookie out weighed her by
3 lbs.  Tilly always had a habit of scratching a small whole between the
fleece and hammock material and go inside to sleep.  There would be times I
couldn't see her, because Tanookies' whole body would cover her up.  I
would always check to see if she was ok.  She was.  Then this morning like
clockwork I get up and walked from my room to theirs, which is right in
front of my room where I can see in and hear for anything.  Like always
they are all still asleep (I didn't check for Tilly, because I thought I
saw her move under Tanookie), so I go fix my coffee, check my e-mail, drink
a couple of cups of coffee, while answering a couple of e-mails.  I go to
their room, to wake them up for potty runs, then breakfast.  Tanookie was
sitting there looking up at the hammock and Tilly was just so still, I knew
something was wrong.  I picked up her slightly warm listless body and she
was gone.  Tanookie had smothered her accidentally under the fleece and his
dead asleep weight kept her from coming all the way out from under him and
she evidently couldn't get enough air to breath.  My little Tills Girl is
gone and I could have prevented it by sewing up the hole she would make or
given them a thicker plain hammock or taken more time and made sure she was
ok.  I've lost Digger and Rascal to supposedly unknown reasons, vets
couldn't tell me why they were sick and died exactly the same way, even
with necropsies done.  Now I have lost Tills Girl from my ignorance.  I
hope this will help keep another furkid stay alive.  For the memory of my
Tills Girl, please hug each and everyone of your furkids.
 
OutlawDook and all the Dookmeisters missing Tills terribly
,,,,,,,,,Tears for my Tills Girl
[Posted in FML issue 2447]