How do I begin?  I thought that I had cried all the tears I had last week
for my Petey and last night I came home and found that my little "Bouncie
Creature" had gone to the bridge unexpectedly.  She hadn't been her usual
"Bouncy" self the past few days and I just thought that she was getting
a bit older and at seven years old she had slowed down a bit.  Her usual
antics included war dancing on top of the three decker cage and leaping
off the edge onto the small couch next to it.  She would wait to ensure
that I was watching her and just far enough away so I couldn't snatch her
up and tell her not to give me a heart attack.  And now she has broken my
heart instead.
 
She was the last of my original group of ferrets and the first ferret
I ever adopted, from Jan DeJesus of the Gimmee Shelter Ferret Rescue.
Bouncie is the reason I joined Mass Ferret Friends as Jan gave me a
complimentary membership for adopting her and Brownie.  Bouncie is the
reason that my life changed and has enabled me to save so many other
ferrets, forge the life long friendships with other Mass Ferret Friends
Members, met so many other caring ferret owners and reached out to the
public with education, donation and determination.  Bouncie was the
reason why I got out of bed everyday.  Bouncie was my buddy who came to
her name and followed me around the yard to beat up all the marigolds,
biting them, rolling on them and distributing the seeds.
 
When I had jury duty awhile ago I got picked for a particularly nasty
case.  One morning when I was hurrying off to court she didn't feel well,
I packed her up in a carrier with duck soup and brought her with me on a
cool March day.  The vet's office was the next exit and I thought that I
could feed her, and get her to their office on our break.  Well that was
the day that they gave us the case to deliberate and we could not leave
the jury room.  There would have been a mistrial had I not convinced the
bailiff and ten other jury members that Bouncie had to come into the jury
room and be hand fed every two hours until we were dismissed.  Bouncie
gave me the conviction to convince them as we passed through the metal
detector and her carrier through the x-ray machine.  So Bouncie went to
court and the criminal went to jail.
 
There are so many happy memories of my Bouncie who Jan named "The Bounce
Creature" after visiting her house and making a splash pool of her water
fountain, then hiding the wet rocks under her pillows.  So many education
days, fund raisers, and duck soup evenings that she peered through the
cage to watch Mommie help another fuzzy while she dooked at me.  So many
times that she did her roll over trick when Mommie was sad for losing
another to make me laugh through my millions of tears.
 
Truly the wind changed direction in my life as I buried her in the rain
last night and things will never be the same.  I have lost seven ferrets
in the past twelve months and have cried a million tears for each of
them.  But Bouncie was different.  Did you ever feel a perceptible change
in the world?
 
Saraferret and Muldoone Ferret, Can you please look for my Bouncie and
tell her that I didn't know to tell her a special goodbye and how much
she changed my life?  She took along a paw full of marigolds and a
cheweasel for her journey and as a final gift save her Mommie from seeing
her go.
 
Diane W.
[Posted in FML issue 5042]