I post this with heaviness in my heart.

As many of you know, my ferrets have been fostered out to friends for
most of this year. Daily, I dream of bringing them home. That day will
be the final and most important step in my healing. symbolizing that my
life has stabilized and I am once again able to nurture and care for
something other than myself.

As a foster Mom myself, I have had the pleasure of having many ferrets
join my family and seeing them go to forever homes or the Rainbow
bridge after being cherished.

All these years of ferrets and I have only purchased 1, NuNu BaBe. 2
years ago, I had lost my most honorable Gigi, I had a business of over
20 ferts. my Mom was in the hospital with lung cancer and I had made a
quick trip to the local feed store to get food.

Always stopping to play with the babies while they loaded my truck, my
heart was stolen by the darkest little black baby. Born on Mothers Day.
Right then, I knew he would be mine. Daily I visited on the way home
from the hospital. The numbers dwindled in his group, yet he was always
still there seeming to recognize me each each evening. On the last
night before my Mom was released, my final stop for awhile, I found he
was the only one left. Picking him up as usual, he snuggled in my arms,
yawned and promptly went to sleep. The clerk said he had been pacing
the pen for hours as if looking for my visit. Not being able to put him
back, he went home with me that night in a brown paper sack with the
well wishes of the store owner.

I had a Baby, a New Babie ( had started fostering this Babie just days
before) and now a real baby. I called him Newton. He looked just like
a Fig Newton and smelled like cookies.

Confessing my weakness to Candie, the S.A.F.E. shelter director, I said
I was holding a new real baby. Confused she asked if I now had a new
NewBABIE. Laughing at this misunderstanding, he then became NuNu BaBe.
     
He stayed small never weighing more than a lb and a half. Nipped only
me if I ignored him. Tenaciously he solved problems. Never wanting to
lose his freedom, he would hyper-ventilate if put in a carrier for a
ride in the car, yet calmly he would stay on my shoulder. He was a
Houdini. Always an exceptional entertainer. A real pistol.

Once he emptied my lingerie drawer, flinging panties everywhere,
including over a floor lamp. I came home to this and promptly called
the local police, thinking a pervert had been in my home. It kept
happening. ROTFL, days later, I had to call and report that I had
detained the culprit and was holding him under citizens arrest. The
case was closed.

While reading in my bedroom I had watched him open the drawer. With
determination it took him 30 minutes to complete the task as the other
fur kids looked on. Tossing the candy I kept hidden there to the floor
he randomly tossed a pair of dainties. He was admired by the bunch.

Several days before Halloween, early one morning, Carol found the
ferrets frolicking in the front yard. They had escaped from the house
thru the garage. We knew that that it had to be NuNu that released
them. He and Tyler were the only ones that unfortunately were not
rounded up. Not going to work, she spent the day walking the
neighborhood with a squeaky toy, knocking on doors, looking in back
yards and crying. Returning from school, her children joined on
bicycles.
 
How would she tell me? Would I finally crack? This angel loves me and
wants never to be the one responsible for bringing sadness to my front
door. She had to find them. Her family posted flyers. The fuzzies were
sighted and would run mischievously away. Planting Kibble bushes,
ferret food was placed around the area by caring animal lovers and
monitored. Watering holes erupted. The escapees would be sighted and
never captured. Dusk and dawn the critters have been cruising, never
in the same place. A case map was created tracing their path.

The neighborhood posse refuses to give up. They have continued the
search all armed with squeakers. It has brought solidarity to the
community. A common goal, FIND THOSE FERRETS. There has been rain,
hot days, cold nights and weeks have passed.
    
Last Sunday the call came. A dark ferret, run over by a car after
church, was laying in the street at least a mile away. Accompanied by
her husband, Carol went to bring him home. He had crossed the bridge
and was now free. Asleep in her arms, she took my NuNu BaBe home to
rest in her yard. He joined others long passed.

May he always war dance amongst the stars dooking with the glee that
only real freedom brings.

Not forgetting the one now alone, Please pray for Tyler's safe return.
Ferret MOM

Dooks and War Dances,
Leizann Michele Engelke 

My Page
http://360.yahoo.com/profile-ZwIdoHElc6.3UfLvbNiTYGyGpuhU
Ferret Merchandise
http://stores.ebay.com/things4feritz

[Posted in FML 5453]