Thought people might like an update of how our furries are doing.
 
'Chopper the organic helicopter (Path Valley) at 6 and 1/2 is still having
problems.  She just has not been able to utilize nutrients well ever since
she had ECE last Spring because of the extent of her intestinal damage, and
is very slowly wasting away.  On the other hand, she doesn't at all act like
she minds being skin and bones (or having always had limited hearing, and
being deaf in the last year from protein accumulation in her lenses) so she
runs around like crazy.  Steve calls it "Burning her calorie." Right now
she's down to 1# 6 1/2 ounces (about a half pound below her healthiest
weight).  She's been a very healthy and very athletic individual for her
entire life till ECE, since then she look like an 8 year old but has again
become athletic.  We thought she might be getting an adrenal tumor earlier
this year when she dropped the fur over her sacrum rapidly, but it's grown
back and she's fine.  A short while ago she has a concussion when she made a
leap we couldn't catch and was unconscious for two minutes -- very
frightening.  She will kiss non-stop for 45 minutes.
 
Spot (Marshall Farms) is five and a half.  You'd never know that he was one
of the three who almost died with ECE, except that he's gone to more of an
older ferret distribution of fat.  Except for having had a broken tooth with
an infected root and ECE he's never had any problems.  Spotty is Daddy's boy
and loves moving his toy ferret around.
 
Meeteetse came to us as an abuse vistim kit with a mangled tail, sailed
through ECE last year -- NOTHING has ever stopped her from being a pig, and
at 5 and 1/2 this Marshall Farms girl looks like a three year old.  She
adores Daddy, and will do anything -- probably even wash windows -- for
food.  Her tail stabilized and then even grew back its fur after she came
close to having to lose it earlier this year, but it still has peripheral
nerve damage from the ligaments calcifying by the old injured area so she
might still lose it.  She also lost sacrum fur recently and then grew it all
back.  The Fly is strong as a ox.
 
Warp also almost died of ECE, but she's back to normal and creating havoc.
She's Mommie's girl and was also an abuse victim kit before she came here at
6 months of age.  Right now she's 4 months from turning 4 years old, and is
also a Marshall Farms girl, a highly photogenic one.  Aside from her abuse
and her ECE bleed-outs she's never had any health problems worse than tail
acne a couple of years ago.  She looks like a two year old.
 
Jumpstart is also Marshall Farms and is almost two and a half.  He's at his
prime and gorgeous.  This is our shy boy -- he's always been a bit skittery
but he adores any human being and will cuddle till your arms get sore. He
has Alfred E Newman ears which are SO CUTE!
 
Ashling is hell on four feet.  She and Scooter (both Path Valley) will turn
one in a couple of weeks.  She climbs everything and gets into any sort of
trouble you can imagine; she's also a genius ferret so you can see that we
have our hands full with her.
 
Scootie lacks all the brains Ashling has and is only about a half week
younger so we split the difference for when they get their joint birthday
party.  Tootie lacks a large number of toes but doesn't care too much, and
that foot has an strange almost-claw which is somewhat flexible and has to
be kept trimmed (grows at about 1/3 the rate of the claws).  He's not as
great with mouth manners as we'd like in that he'll try to get attention
with nibbles, but he's slowly learning and the nibbles are getting fewer and
gentler all the time.  This is a rather dense ferret in all aspects but he
sure does love to hug and kiss.
[Posted in FML issue 2214]