To all of you that have a Ferret or thinking of buying one, Please read.
 
Five years ago when my wife and I were walking in the Sanford Flea Market we
spotted an adorable little Ferret that we held and played with.  We were
told he was around a year old.  I told my wife that we should give him a
good home since we both fell in love with him.  We adopted him and named him
Snoopers.  We had many good times with our loving little friend.  He chased
us around the house, got into trouble and raised all kinds of hell with our
dogs.  When he was two years old we got another ferret for him that we named
Gizmo so Snoopers could have a "roommate," and the two of them got along
just fine.  Gizmo tended to play rough with Snoopers since he was younger,
so we had to keep an eye on them because we thought that they would kill
each other.  After some time Snoopers started to calm down and Gizmo raised
hell.
 
In the last few months we started to see more of a change in Snoopers.  He
would still kiss you and be loving but he started moving around slower and
acted listless at times.  Just after New Year's he started losing hair on
his back.  Usually every winter he would lose the hair on his tail, but this
time he was losing hair on his back also.  He also was having trouble
getting around.  Last week I came home to find him stuck under the ladder in
his cage and he had lost total control of himself.  I took him out and
cleaned him and held him for some time and it looked like he was back to
acting like himself.  Thursday my wife told me he was having a hard time
using the litter box and seemed to be in pain.  That night I took him out
and held him on my lap and he was very weak.  We decided to call the vet and
was told to bring him in Saturday.  On Friday I took him out and held him
again and this time he hardly moved.  I put him back in his cage and all he
would do was just sleep and not move from the place I had put him.  I
 
told my wife I didn't think he was going to be with us much longer.
 
When the vet saw him Saturday morning (today) he said that Snoopers had a
tumor in his adrainal(sp?) gland that was cancerous and was in heart
failure.  He also said he was definitely in pain.  At that point we both
agreed it was time to put Snoopers to sleep.  To all of you that have never
had to put a loving pet to sleep, it is very hard and this was the first
time I had to do this.  I held his little head in my hand and petted him
when the doctor gave him his shot.  With tears in my eyes I told Snoopers it
was time to go to sleep and while holding him, Snoopers drifted off to
sleep.  I made him a little casket and buried him, with my wife and the rest
of our pets looking on.  He now rests in my garden with a little head stone
"SNOOPERS 2/24/96."
 
The reason I'm writing this is to be able to express my grief and to tell
you about a very loving Ferret named Snoopers.
 
Thanks,
 
Tom Balevre
 
If anyone would like to help me thru this time, please E-mail me at
[log in to unmask]
 
Rest in peace Snoopers. you are now in God's hands. We will never forget
you..
 
Love,
Daddy (Tom), Mommie (Audrey), Gizmo, Windy, Shakers, and Sassy
[Posted in FML issue 1489]