I know some of you think I have dropped off the face of the earth, well I
did, now I am back (for today at least).  I took a trip to the northeast on
the 23rd, returned on the 26th exhausted, behind here, and to find children
not feeling well.  My roommate did a wonderful job caring for Fruitloop, who
became ill while I was gone, so I took over his care and within 2 days found
that a couple others had begun not feeling well :< so I was up day and night
nursing sick kids and catching up on cage cleanings here, and trying to work
too.
 
Sadly, one of our babies passed away on Friday.  She was a beautiful 6 year
old light silver named Jasmine.  She was a real sweetie and loved to give
kisses.  She had heart, liver, and adrenal problems.  She is deeply missed.
I am still very upset over losing her.  I am trying several ferrets with her
companion, Fruitloop, who remains alone for now.  He does not seem to miss
her terribly, but he has been ill also, though making a great recovery now.
Losing them is the hardest part of running a shelter, very, very hard.
 
Another little girl, roughly 4 years old, has been ill with liver problems
for the past 10 days or so.  She is recovering very well now.  Her name is
Cendy, she is a 'lap' ferret and loves to give kisses.  I am very happy that
she and Fruitloop are better now.  Such a relief.  I have spent many, many
days and nights up with both of them trying to get them to take Duck Soup
when they wanted to give up.  Have gone through *cases* of Deliver 2.0, but
it was worth it.  I am only sad that I could not help Jasmine.  She was here
for about 6 months and at least I know she was happy here.  She got lots of
good food, had many playmates, and lots of playtime.
 
I rescued 2 ferrets Sunday, one, a male about 4 to 5 years who was found
wandering the streets and in ill health by the humane society.  I took him
to see the vet yesterday, but suspected the news would be bad, it was.  We
named him Mork.  He is a light sable, he has advanced lymphoma.  The vet
gives him only a few weeks to live, I am very sad about this, but will do
everything I can to provide a happy and comfortable life for him for the
time he has left.  He is a cuddly boy, but has lost about 50 percent of his
hair due to adrenal problems as well.  He is content sitting in my lap,
wrapped in a towel for warmth.  I am holding my breath hoping that I can
give him as much time as possible.
 
The other rescue, named Baby, is young and in good health except that he is
very thin from having been on cheap grocery store catfood that contained
lots of corn, and only 8 percent fat!!  He is on a great diet of Totally
Ferret food now, and I expect he will gain weight quickly.  Since he and
Mork have not had ECE (though not completely sure about Mork due to his
unknown origin) I will try to pair those two together so Mork can have a
'friend' for the time he has left.  After he passes on I can put Baby with
other ferrets.  He is young so I feel it would be in his best interests to
expose him to ECE while he is young, but for Mork's sake I will wait until
Mork is no longer with us.  I have held the two up to each other to
'introduce' them, and Baby is very eager to groom and clean and be friends
with Mork, so I am hoping they will become buddies.  I think it will be up
to Mork, now.
 
I picked up the little biter on the 24th named is Tiki, she is doing great!!
She was mentioned on the fml 3 or 4 weeks ago.  She is the "face-biter", I
have not figured out yet why she does this, but since the pet store sold her
for only $30, I expect she had a history of this behovior that even the
store could not deal with.  We are uncertain of Tiki's age also.  Jennifer,
her former mom, did a wonderful job of working with her, but it just seems
this will be a tough one, and Jennifer has a two and a four year old child
so I was concerned that the ferret could hurt the children.  Jennifer
decided to let me take Tiki back home with me.  I will work with this kid
for as long as it takes to help her overcome her fear or whatever is causing
her to bite faces, maybe a human yelled at her right in her face or
something, not sure, don't care.  Tiki can stay here forever if she needs
to.  She will not be adopted out unless I can be certain she is over the
biting.  I expect this may take many months.  She is a fat little girl, and
LOVES the other ferrets!!!  She seems so happy to have friends here.  The
$60 airfare for her was well worth it, and Delta allowed her to ride under
the seat, so she was never out of my sight!!  (BTW that's why I flew Delta
in the first place, didn't know whether I'd be bringing Tiki back, but there
was that posibility.)
 
Many thanks to Judith White and all the others who helped tremendously with
Tiki in our travels up north.  Thanks to Judith, Tiki had lots of wonderful
Totally ferret to eat, and Ferretone for the plane ride to help with her
ears, keeping them from hurting when the plane descended, etc..  Tiki made
lots of friends, especially Judith's daugher Rebecca, who didn't mind her
biting and became her friend.  (Tiki sends hugs, Rebecca.)
 
The other kiddos here are great (except those already mentioned that are
recovering from illness).  We have some terminally ill kids too, Angel,
Rikki, and Sammy, but they all appear great at this time, all are on
medicines to prolong their time.  They are very spoiled, and lack for
nothing!!  Festus is putting on a winter coat..FINALLY!, he sure looks
different, he has had the same coat since he arrived here almost 1-1/2 years
ago.  He is gaining weight and is healthy!!  He had adrenal surgery a couple
months ago, the gland turned out to be cancerous, but they got it all!
Festus is spoiled rotten just like the others, very possessive of his
hammock too, so I had to put two in his cage as he would not share with the
3 girls he lives with.
 
I am very far behind at work, so between that and vet visits and hopefully
adopting out 2 this week, I will be a bit pressed, but am making every
effort to respond to emails and such today, will have some time off the rest
of the week too, I think, so maybe I can catch up here.  The cages are
caught up and I am not giving duck soup to anyone at the moment, so things
are settling down here.  It is so hard going away, I had so much work
waiting for me when I returned and the ill children ALWAYS come first!!!
Hope no one is upset with me, shelter life is extremely unpredictable!!
 
Kisses to the fuzzies :>
 
Trish
Director, Ferrets First Rescue & Shelter
[Posted in FML issue 1774]