[2-part post combined]
 
Monday happened like most other days around here.  Get up, fix breakfast
for the human kid, take the dogs out to potty.  Make the ferrets who need
or like it their duck soup breakfasts.  Granny ate her two cubes with
gusto.  Some days she wants it, others she doesn't and would stick to
kibble alone.
 
Went to my aunt's house for the family's last hurrah of the year in the
pool, and our cookout.  Came home at 5:30 and made my dinner round with
the furkids, noting Granny sleeping half in and half out of her hammy.
Again.  I scooped her up and she was limp.  Another SND I figured.  No,
she was asleep, breathing lightly, but would not rouse.
 
My life with her, as they say, flashed before my eyes.  The day, 5 years
ago, that I received my FML with a post about a little old ferret in a
Kentucky pound, whose owners thoughtlessly left her behind in their
abandoned apartment.  The management put her in the pound, and she was
slated to be euthed in 2 days.  The volunteer was coming to the Columbus
ferret show, did anyone have room for this little one?
 
I responded, met them at their hotel room at the end of the show, and
brought her home.  Her age was estimated to be about 5 years.  She was
thin, terrified, and dirty.  A bath, a wrap dry in a soft warm towel made
her more comfortable.  Since I had to treat her like one, I called her
Baby.  She ate, but I had to puree her food.  Didn't know about duck soup
back then, but I already had my own version.  I worried she would die she
seemed so depressed for so long, but every day, persistently talking to
her and hand feeding her, rocking every few hours in the chair brought
her out of her shock.  but the She didn't like other ferrets much, but
tolerated Fidget, my only other ferret, and my first rescue.  it took
nearly a year for Baby to come around, but she filled out fat ans sassy.
We moved out here to a nice big house in the country, and the move threw
her back into her shock, and I thought I would lose her again.  She
obviously did not handle change well, I knew she would never be adoptable.
 
But, I repeated the previous treatment, rocking, soft foods, hand
feeding.  She came around again.  The following winter we had our first
bought of ECE.  It hit Baby the worst, she shriveled up and looked like a
wizened old lady.  But she survived, but her appearance earned her the
nickname of Granny Dooker, since she looked so much like granny Clampett
from the Beverly hillbillies.  Since she was so old it really suited her
more than Baby anymore.  So after surviving ECE at 7 years old.  Granny's
life was relatively uneventful for the next two years.  One day we
noticed she was weak in her hind legs.  She ate less and had to be put on
duck soup or she wouldn't eat.  A friend brought their glucometer over,
but was missing the solution to pretest.  Another friend of mine's
husband is diabetic too so they let me use theirs.  Granny tested at 12,
which is really low.  We had some Pediapred donated for her treatment,
and though she was nine years old by this time, she fought on!  She
survived for a whole year longer.  She slowed down a bit, but still
wanted her playtime!  We couldn't let her roam the house anymore, she was
losing her hearing, and slept so soundly we could not find her without a
huge search, so she was confined to daddy's room and the playpen during
playtimes.  She got on well with the rest of the geriatric crowd to play,
but refused to live with any of them!  She liked her privacy like any
little old lady.  She never went anywhere, but loved to have visitors.
She would stick her nose in their ears and allow them to cuddle her.
 
She was on the giving tree for ferrets for each of it's holidays of
existence.  Last year someone thought she was so special, that since
everyone had Santas, and that it may have been her last year with us (and
it was) they sent her a gift anyway.  A very nice family donated their
departed ferrets' belongings, and sent her his picture.  His name was
Bobbysocks.  They sponsored her for a little while.  She loved everything
they sent.
 
Monday night her reign here ended.  She was the oldest ferret in our
rescue.  She saw me go from rescuing one or 2 at a time five years ago,
to having thirty-one rescues here on the day she passed.  She went rather
peacefully.  We held her close, waiting for each soft sigh to be her
last.  My son and I cried.  I tried to be stronger for him, and reminded
him we knew she was old, and knew this was coming someday soon.  She made
it to her tenth birthday on August 24th, the day of the Buckeye Bash.  I
wanted to have happy birthday Granny on the ribbons of the ring I
sponsored, but was afraid to jinx her, that if I did it she wouldn't make
it.  She was too old to come to the show, but we made her morning and
evening special.  new sleepsack from mommy, and a candle stuck into a
cube of duck soup made really thick.
 
Nine days after her tenth birthday, she left us.  I came home, noticed
her slack form, she had eaten all her duck soup, and some kibble besides.
She had normal poos in her litterbox, was not dehydrated, and had no
mouth sores.  She was not seizuring, just in a deep, comatose sleep.  I
took her to bed with me, and I held her close to me on my pillow, curled
up with one arm about her.  She made a soft cry, I worried she was going
to seizure, and was going to die badly after all.  But no, she then made
an odd face, then went limp all over.  She passed in that quiet manner at
ten twenty PM. Monday night.
 
She will be met at the bridge by PB, Bagel, Blinky, Jet, Bud, Dewey,
Logan, Bandit, Katana, Silk, & Vinnie.  These were all older ferrets who
didn't have granny's spunk, and couldn't get over their shelter shock, or
died of old age, or of illnesses long neglected by their former owners.
She outlasted all of them, a tough little old lady, who takes a very
large piece of my heart with her.
 
Please, not that I am not grateful for the thoughts, please do not
send cards in her memory.  Visit your local shelter instead, in honor
of her memory, and love on their oldsters a while.  Sponsor a permanent
resident.  Leave a donation for the shelter kids after your visit.  If
you dislike sending cash, get a gift card to Petsmart, or the
ferretstore.com, or a phone card for the many long distance calls made
to prospective adopters in phone interviews.  Buy your hammocks and other
bedding from a shelterer.  It makes a huge difference!
 
You might think you're only one person, what can your small gift really
matter?  WRONG!  I don't think about it when I take in another ferret.  I
don't believe in letting them go unsaved.  Because, you may say "What's
one more really matter, when there are so many others?  You aren't even
making a dent in the multitude of homeless ferrets!" I say how can you
NOT help?  I cannot stand idly by, thinking that it doesn't matter.
Well, let me tell you, it matters to THAT one you save.  read the poem
called the starfish.  It is inspiring.
 
oops, sorry to end up sanctimonious in the end.  You can see granny at
her own page, www.mystyxcritters.com/granny.htm
I took photos of her while she was still alive that last day, they will
be up shortly.
 
Kim Wolf
Mystyx Samoyeds, Ferrets and Rescue
www.mystyxcritters.com
www.mystyxrescue.petfinder.org
[Posted in FML issue 3896]