Well, as you all know I posted about Patches passing away last night.  As
odd as this may sound, I just would now like to share some very humorous
moments that happened while burying my baby.
 
No, there is nothing humorous about burying your beloved ferret, and he was
just that...beloved.  But my Slinky made the day much more tolerable, and
left me laughing in the end.  Just to show you that ferrets are the best
medicine for a broken heart.
 
Slinky was Patches' cage mate.  Slinky hates all ferrets, but for whatever
reason, he just liked Patches.  So they were caged together, but Slinky is
not the best ferret for tact....he used to walk right over top of Patches,
even when he was sick.  He'd push Patches out of the food dish, and when I
was feeding raisins through the bars of the cage, Slinky would rush in and
take Patches' raisins.  That's just the tactless ferret that Slinky is.
 
Well, here's the events that occurred while trying to dig a grave for
Patches and lay him to his final resting place...
 
Well, first of all, I brought raisins to sprinkle in Patches' grave.  I
figured that was the best thing to give him for eternity.  Of course, Slinky
could smell them, so he wanted them.  Well, he's trained that if he wants a
raisin, he has to beg for it, up on his hind legs.  So the little stinker
followed me all around the yard, every time I stopped he would stand up on
his little hind legs and beg...but the yard isn't flat like the carpet at
home, so he kept falling over backwards, it was just so funny.  Up he'd
stand, then PLOP, right on his back... Even my mother got a real kick out of
that.
 
Anyway, so then, I started to dig the grave.  Of course, Slinky couldn't
keep the moment somber or serene....IN he hops, right into the grave, and
sticks his nose into the loose dirt and starts tunnelling and digging
himself.  I'm saying to him, what, you trying to help bury him?  You in a
hurry?
 
Okay, so then he gets out and lets me dig some more (with a few more hops
into the grave, he was so filthy with dirt when we were all done...) So then
I put Patches' body (wrapped in a bathrobe and then a bag around it) into
the ground.  I thought that maybe I should let Slinky say goodbye, so I let
him jump into the grave again.  Of course, what does he do but walk all over
Patches one last time, and tried to steal the raisins that I'd sprinkled
over the grave!  Just like he did to him in life.
 
THEN...he grabbed the knot in the bag that Patches was in, and tried to drag
the bag out of the grave!!!  I was appalled, aghast, mortified....I grabbed
him, put him out of the grave, and said that he was awful....(but still
couldn't help but giggle a bit).  So I left him on the side of the grave
while I filled it with fresh dirt and said goodbye.  When I had the mound of
dirt nicely on the grave, Slinky walked onto it to say goodbye, and in that
very touching moment, Slinky raised his tail and pooped, right on top of the
grave!!!  I just stood and stared.  I just don't know what to make of that,
was he trying to say that that's what he thought of Patches?  Or was he
saying that he was mad at him for leaving?  Personally, I like to think that
he was just trying to add his mark to the grave, after all he couldn't
really pick flowers to place atop the grave... :-)
 
So we picked flowers, I placed them on the grave then sprinkled flower
petals around the grave.  We got a camera to take a picture of it, and we
put Slinky on top so he could be in it too.  Wouldn't you belive it, after
pooping on the grave, he then peed on it, too!!!!  I swear it is true, and I
have a picture of him doing it as proof.
 
Well, to some this may all sound quite horrid, but actually it was perfect.
I wouldn't have expected Slinky to handle the day any differently.  We were
laughing, rather than crying, and I know that Patches would have wanted it
that way.
 
On that note, I have to say that the strangest feeling has come over me.
Last night, all I could do was cry...I encouraged Patches to go to the
Rainbow Bridge during his last hour, because I knew it was time, but it
still hurt, and I know he was scared and sad.  But I wrote yesterday about
how after I explained to him what death was, and what he'd find at the
Bridge, he went shortly thereafter...well all day today, rather than feeling
sorrow and grief, all I could feel was this unexplainable feeling of calm
and almost happiness, and I swear to you all, Patches gave that feeling to
me.  I swear that he is up there and he is sooooo happy, and he's trying to
tell me that.  I can't really put this into words, he was such a wonderful,
special, beautiful ferret, I thought I'd be crying for weeks--I did with
Lilly and Whiskey--but this time, I just *know* he's happy.  There MUST be a
Rainbow Bridge, because I know that he is finally happy after all these past
months of illness and surgery...I can just *feel* it...
 
Thank You Very Much for all of the cards and words of sympathy that you all
sent yesterday and today.  I don't know what I would do without my FML
family to understand and go through this with.  Bless each and every one of
you.
 
Kymberlie Becker Barone
Director, Pennsylvania Ferret Rescue Association
"Forget Puppy Love...There's nothing Greater than Ferret Love!" TM
http://home.sprynet.com/sprynet/ferretlady
[Posted in FML issue 2087]