Six years ago today, our first ferret, Sidney, died at the ripe old age of
7.5 years.
 
Sid came into our life one day when my wife went to the pet store to pick
up some supplies for our aquarium.  When she came home from the store, she
presented me with a little box.  When I opened it, there sat this little
critter and I didn't know for sure what to make of it.  I said, "What's
this?" and almost as quickly, "oh no, no way.  A cat is more than enough
for us."  She tried her best to convince me but within the next half hour
we were on our way back to the pet store with the little one.
 
When we got there, we walked in, set Sidney back into the teeming mass of
ferrets they had in a very large, glass sided container, and while I
watched him, my wife told the guy at the counter we were bringing him back.
He quickly pointed to a sign that said "No returns on livestock" and no
amount of discussion would change his mind.
 
So, back into the little box went Sidney and we were on our way back home.
We gave him a small, closed up cardboard box with a hole cut in it and
filled it with towels and confined him to the bathroom.  We didn't know
about ferret proofing at the time, but it didn't take a lot of brains to
see that this tiny, inquisitive creature could get into many place he
wasn't supposed to go.
 
He was kind of nippy and because of that, and because we had just seen the
movie "Sid & Nancy" (or whatever it was called) we named him Sid Vicious.
The "Vicious" part of his name quickly disappeared.  It didn't take long
before he wormed his way into our hearts.  There were no ferret clubs,
shelters, the FML or anything in the way of information on ferrets.  The
only ferret book we found suggested feeding them occasional road kill.  We
didn't like that idea so we fed him grocery store cat food, and gave him
just about anything he wanted, from Coca Cola to Milk, potato chips and
bits of cookie.
 
At night he slept in the drawer of the nightstand next to my side of the
bed.  My wife kept it full of silky slips and similar items so that he'd
have a nice place to sleep.  For years he slept either in that drawer or on
the bed next to me.  What a life he had.  He had never seen a cage, and it
never occured to us to provide him with a cage.
 
Sometime in January of '92, at around 6.5 years of age, he seemed to be
ill.  Nothing we could put our finger on, but he just didn't seem right.
We went from vet to vet, none of them having a clue about ferrets and had
every kind of test, worthless or otherwise, run on poor little Sidney.  We
then found what would eventually become our shelter's clinic and happened
to run into the shelter operator there.  I also found the FML around that
time, but was an on again off again subscriber.
 
Sidney went through surgery for removal of a huge spleen and in the
process, had two little rubber disks removed from his stomach.  These
were no doubt the real cause of all his ills, and after his recovery from
surgery, he was his old self again.
 
Everything went along fine for the next year or so.  Sid got a little grey
around the wiskers, and wasn't up to chasing me up and down the stairs as
he had done so many times in the past, but all in all, he was doing great
for a seven year old ferret.  Adrenal disease and/or insulinoma weren't
even words that were in my vocabulary at that time, and never would be
with Sidney.
 
The morning of April 10, 1993, a Saturday I remember like yesterday, I
noticed Sid appeared to be favoring his right rear leg.  I scooped him up
and off to the vet we went.  It didn't appear to be a major problem and the
vet had to put him on a carpeted area just to be able to tell he wasn't
walking quite right.  X-rays and a few questions about what could have
happened and we were on our way back home.  From that point on, things got
terribly bad so fast that I still can't believe it.  The weakness in the
right rear leg turned into total non-use of the leg and progressed to the
left rear leg.  Within a day he was barely dragging himself around.  After
many trips back to the vet between Saturday and Wednesday morning, we were
in a panic and Sidney was almost totally paralyzed.  He could only lay
there and wimper.  My wife brought him home from the vet on Wednesday
afternoon and called me at work, crying that Sid was not doing so good and
she didn't think he would make it.  I took off work, rushed home and we sat
with Sid for about an hour.  It seemed hopeless and back to the vet we
went.  The vet was at a loss and Sid was totally paralyzed and appeared to
be in some pain.
 
We sat with him in the exam room for a bit and then decided that the best
thing for Sid would be to let him go peacefully.  We told the vet it was
time and he gave Sid a heavy dose of tranquilizer and we held him for 10
minutes or so, saying our goodbyes, until he was pretty heavily under.
 
We were pretty numb by then too, both crying pretty good, and to this day I
can't forgive myself that I then allowed the vet to take Sidney to the back
to give him the "final" shot.  We should have been there for him at that
moment.  What I wouldn't give to be able to go back and change that.
 
Two days later, we buried Sidney in our local pet cemetary.  We lived in
an apartment at the time, and it seemed the best place for him.  He has a
beautiful granite headstone with his picture and "We love you and miss you
very much -- Mommy and Daddy" on it.  It's the same pet cemetary that
Deborah Jeans mentions in her book and I always pay my respects to her two
when I'm there.
 
I visit Sidney regularly and still get tears in my eyes when I do.  His
pictures are all over our ferret room, along with my other boys that have
gone since.  Sidney introduced us to the joy of ferrets and he will never,
ever be forgotten.
 
Rest in peace little boy.  We still love you and miss you very much.
 
Mike
[Posted in FML issue 2646]