Hi.  I haven't been able to subscribe to this is almost two years.  Boy
did I miss it and I am back on just in time.  First things first I should
reintroduce myself.  I was living in Maryland with four fuzzies a while
back.  Now I am living in Massachusetts with six fuzzies.  I work at the
(as far as a lot of people are concerned) number one animal hospital in
the country and boy does it come in handy.  My kids were fine (all four
of them) until November of 1998 when I walked into a pet store innocently
looking for food and saw "Buddy" ( I have since changed his name).  He was
playing around in this three story cage all by himself, and he was Huge for
a kit!!!  He had a sign above him saying something needing donations so
that he could have this surgery he needed because the pet store couldn't
afford any more medical treatment for him and the owner didn't want him
sent back or put down.  So I of course played with him for a bit and
decided to think about it.  I am not sure when I thought it over, I just
remember going home and getting the house ready for him the next day.  So I
went back the next day and picked him up and the cage he was living in so
that he could have something familiar to him in a new home and the others
wanted a new cage anyway.  So we all came home and the next day he came to
work with me for what I thought would be surgery.  I was surprised and
excited when their doctor said my new baby didn't need surgery.  He had all
of his vax and check up and radiographs to make sure he was ok inside, just
to double check to surgery wasn't needed.  Well while he was in there I saw
another tiny panda ferret sitting alone in a cage without a name or an
owners name or anything.  Tracey, our doctor, said it looks like he needs a
home and so I asked around why he was there.  Apparently a woman had seen
him walking around her neighborhood for over a year and since winter was
coming she caught him and brought him in there to hopefully find him a
home.  He weighed less that a pound and looked like a kit but he was about
a year and a half or so.  I came home with yet another fuzzball.  This time
my fianc=E9e said we would just nurse him back to good health and then
adopt him out to someone who would love him.  Well that never happened.  He
is a chubby little guy now and him and Sugar (formerly known as Buddy) are
best friends.  They wrestle 20 out of 24 hours a day.  I love it.  They are
both in perfect health and happily adjusted into the new home.  The four
others are doing ok.  They are getting older and of course having health
problems now.  Casey, my old lady, has insolinoma.  She lost a lot of
weight and started biting me for sweet treats so she came to work with me
and that was the trouble.  I was terrified at first but I am getting better
with it.  She loves her prednisone!!!  She just had her one month check up
and her blood glucose only went from 58 to 59 but at least it didn't go
down.  She also has a very large spleen and started losing hair at the base
of her tail recently too.  She is a great ferret though.  She always wants
to be cuddled and petted.  She loves people.  Then there is Bear who was
doing ok in October but has since followed Casey's footsteps.  Losing
weight, biting for sweet treats.  He goes for a glucose check in April and
we shall see what happens.  He is only 2 and a half though so I worry for
him.  Gravy is my peanut.  She is about 5 or so and totally neglected as a
kit.  She was kept locked in a hamster cage and fed meow mix for three
years.  she weighs just about a pound now and I have had her for about two
years and she loves to be out of the cage and eat real food.  She is out
hairless wonder.  she has no hair on her tail at all.  We had an ultrasound
in January and it looked fine so I am hoping in April when she gets
rechecked that it looks good again and she is just hairless.  I also have
biscuit who over the past few months has gotten quite chubby and turned
into what looks like a silverback gorilla.  he is the perfect ferret
though.  he has that ferret body you see in drawings, he always uses the
litter pan, never bites, plays when you want to, doesn't pick on any other
ferret, likes to go for walks on the leash and basically is pretty easy
going.  never had any medical problems.  he was our first so he started the
craze.  they aren't all like that though.  "what litter pan?" anyway those
are my kids.  They all sleep together except Casey who for whatever reason
they all beat her up.  She always has some sort of battle wound on her neck
so she is now caged alone and let out all night while the others are let
out all day and caged at night.  she is a people ferret anyway.
 
I will be writing again soon, thanks for listening to me babble about my
kids!!!
 
Nikole and Gene
also Biscuit, Gravy, Bear, Casey, Sugar and Popeye
[Posted in FML issue 2622]