I'm in shock. Well, not quite, you don't usually cry while you're in
shock, do you? My poor ferret, Keesa, got crushed by a 60 lb weight
yesterday. She's not dead, but we're still not past the 24 hour mark.
 
My son was being irresponsible and took the ferrets out to a friend's
house, let his friend tie them someplace without checking and they were
too close to the weight bench. Worse yet, she stuck her head and chest
in the weights when my *son* was using it! (it was one of those benches
where you sit up and the weights are behind you and you pull down. The
weights go up and down behind the person exercising)
 
Her chest was crushed, and she has a head injury. They did x-rays: her
backbone is not broken, there was a lot of bleeding into the chest but
as of 7pm last night it seemed to have stabilized, and they're giving
her cortizone for brain swelling and treating her for shock. The vet
told me that she didn't expect much change by last night, but was
surprised that she seemed more alert. She said when she touched her, she
picked up her  head and looked at her.
 
It's so shocking and horrifying to see a ferret lying perfectly still.
She just lay there, breathing very fast and shallow, her eyes half
closed and the tip of her tongue sticking out. I honestly thought she'd
die before I got her to the vet's. I was surpised she wasn't any worse
by the time I got there (through horrible traffic and 95 degree
temperatures! and I have no air conditioning)
 
Then at the vet's some old lady  was picking up medicine for her cat and
gives me the "Ooooo I can't even look at THAT! What's that second cousin
to? A ..." I knew she was going to say a rat and at that moment rage
boiled up inside me (I'm usually very, very un-angry) and I wanted to
blast her. But all I said was: "a possum" which was the first thing I
could think of that was sort of cute. Not very accurate, but I wasn't
rational at the time. :) Then I burst into tears, which probably did
more to let the woman know this poor hurt creature was my *PET* and I
loved her as much as she loved her cat. *sigh* People can be so cruel
sometimes.
 
I'm afraid to hope she'll live, but being more alert last night was a
good sign. As long as she stops bleeding inside. The vet said she'd peed
and moved her bowels, so that stuff is intact and working. God. I feel
so awful. I feel so *guilty*. My son is devastated. My entire family is
depressed and morose!
 
And to make things more interesting, while all this was going on at home
and I was rushing home, the dog got caught (twisted) in the rubber of
the dog door and my husband had to destroy the dog door ... and then the
phone rang and a video rental place said we were late bringing back a
tape we'd never rented ... and this morning on the way to work my
motorcycle had a blow out in the front tire and I came very, very close
to wrecking (but I did wrench my back nicely wrestling with the bike).
*sigh* Okay god, you can stop now.
 
--Barb--
 
[Posted in FML issue 0567]