Most of my ferrets have medical problems. It is my choice to care for
these precious ones. It is sad to see their sweet faces knowing that
every day is a gift. Some are with me a very short time. But for many
of them my love for them is the first they have experienced. Their
stories are sad....locked in filthy cages for years sometimes without
enough food to eat or clean water, beaten and abused, never seeing a
vet or totally ignored and heartbroken. Flash, a drug dealer's ferret
so abused he ducked whenever I patted him for 2 years. His first kiss
made me cry. Shanara and Slinky in a wired shut cage for years living
in mounds of feces and so filthy I didn't know what color they were.
Sneaky so terribly abused she shook all over at the sight of a human
and viciously bit them. After 10 months of buying bandaides, she
finally began to trust me and now loves people. Sydney, Carmine and
Sweet Pea whose cage I could smell as I got out of my car, from across
the street and all the way up the driveway. Some come from the OR
Ferret Shelter, vet referrals, I travel to get them, I see notices in
the paper or internet, call or email people and tell them their options
and sometimes they just come to my door. I worry about the ones that
don't come.

My days are filled with medications and worries and dashes to the vet.
I am not a shelter mom but admire them greatly. They do what I do....
on a much, much larger scale.

I was told by a dear friend that I needed a baby ferret to help me cope
with all the daily sadness. My giant privately bred part angora boy
Tyki came to me almost 3 years ago. Healthy, gorgeous and no medical
problems. He is ferret friendly so gets loose most of the day with
different groups. For 6 to 8 hours he races through this house upstairs
and down, jumping in the tub for a drip shower, pushes all the
facecloths out of the cabinet plus all his other "chores" that he
insists on doing. It is rare to see him rest or nap when he is loose.
He is my happiness on dark days when an insulinoma ferret crashes, a
ferret leaves for the Rainbow Bridge or another medically fragile or
terribly abused ferret enters my life. Tyki keeps me going. So why do
I need another ferret I told my friend. She started telling me about
this little girl ferret....that's all it took.

Treasure is a gorgeous, privately bred, medically sound, jet-propelled,
talky "treasure". She is exactly what I needed! I have 2 squamous cell
carcinoma kids, 2 insulinoma kids, 7 adrenal kids and poor Dix who is
an adrenal, insulinoma and lyphoma sweetheart. Yes Treasure is just
what I needed!

Nancy and her 17

[Posted in FML 6744]