I have sad news.  When I got home last night Willow was laying on a blanket
in an odd position at the bottom of the stairs.  I knew right away before I
got to him that he was dead.  I called Dr. Snyder and took Willow to him to
do a necropsy.  He did the necropsy last night and allowed me to watch.  It
was really very interesting.  Willow had liver cancer.  His liver was full
of tumors, 2 quite large and one had ruptured which caused Willow to bleed
to death.  Willow's tummy was full of blood.  Everything else was fine,
heart-lungs-spleen-adrenals- kidneys-pancreas.  Larry said that this was the
easiest way for Willow to go because had he opened him up before there would
have been absolutely nothing they could have done because all lobes of the
liver were full of different sizes of nodules.  I believe we were both
concerned as to why Willow died and Larry wanted to know ASAP in case the
others would be at risk.
 
Willow was a MF blaze ferret and just turned 4 years old.  He had never been
as healthy as other ferrets and was calmer than normal.  I'd had him in for
check ups frequently.  We did not ever run a liver panel, it just didn't
occur to us that might be the problem.
 
Willow was my little vampire boy.  When asked who was the vampire, if it was
him he'd open his mouth real wide for all to see his fangs, if it was me (or
April - he ALWAYS did this for April) he would toss his head back and expose
his neck so we could "kiss" his neck.  On many presentations (Willow was
also one of our ambassador ferrets) we would do this trick, or should I say
try, and he would either amaze people with his talent or make me look
foolish.  :-)
 
Willow also has a paragraph in the book "Who's Who of Animals".
 
Larry (Dr. Snyder) said I have strange ferrets.  I don't think that's the
case, I believe it is that they have a strange Guardian.  :-)
 
Too soon I must say again "Sleep well my love.  I am blessed for the time we
had together."
 
In loving memory of Willow (August 1992 - August 1996)
[Posted in FML issue 1650]