Hello Everyone,
 
I wanted to bring everyone completely up to date on the great White Fang
adventure.  It is an ever continuing story with no end in sight.  Let me
assure everyone that Patricia Curtis and Bob Church were kept aware of the
events at my house, and asked by me not to mention it.  Parts of this may
anger some of you, I hope not.  If it does, please write me, not them.
 
White Fang is a cute DEW female with great intellegence.  It follows then
that she is a ferret who can get into a lot of trouble and will keep you on
your toes trying to keep up with her.  She is a good sized female, now
weighing around 750 grams.  She is full of energy, loves to play and is
quite deaf.  Can't hear the slightess noise.  She will take raisins from my
lips and whenever I walk into a room, she looks at me to see if I want
anything, then goes about her business.
 
I have 18 other ferrets in the house, including Stanley, a sable male who
loves rubber.  Since I have Stanley proofed the house, I didn't worry about
White Fang's love of rubber.  Well folks, she caught me off guard.  One
afternoon she upturned a phone and proceeded to eat all the rubber feet off
of it.  I discovered the dirty deed shortly after it happened and rushed her
to the vet.  A radiograph showed us a small pile of rubber bits in her
stomach, it took me about 2 seconds to read it!  So a surgery was scheduled
and all the nasty bits were removed.
 
That's right, White Fang had a second surgery.  I feel really bad about it,
and since she was in my care at the time, I am footing the bill.  No money
from anyone other than myself paid for it (well, outside of my soon to be
ex).  It was fortunate in a way as part of what was removed from her stomach
was an unidentifiable piece of slag, rubber that had been partially
digested.  From its state, the vet feels it was in her stomach quite
sometime, probably before I got her.  The theory is that she ate something
while in her travels with Bob, or while he was boarding her in Oregon.  Or
possibly the vet in Calgary who did her original surgery left something.  I
don't really know, not trying to place blame.
 
White Fang is a very high maintenance ferret.  She is going to have to be
watched and confined a good part of the time.  I am having to take it slow
in intergrating her into my house.  Due to her deafness, she attacks all my
guys on sight.  I understand this is common behavior in deaf animals.  But
since she has had so many homes recently, I hate moving her yet again.  She
spends a lot of time in my bedroom and will sleep with me.  And she has
gotten used to our other room mate, Nicky, another DEW who has only partial
use of his hind legs.  Last night for the first time, they both slept next
to me under the covers.  But WF and I have bonded and I don't want to ship
her off yet again.  She is insecure and needs some stability.
 
And if anyone thinks she should have stayed with Bob, well, White Fang
still hasn't come down with ece after all this time.  Some of us feel it
is because she has had it before.  And with all of Bob's other troubles,
he doesn't need ece going through his house.
 
Again, I hope no one gets angry about the second surgery.  I asked the
people involved not to talk about it due to the email they received when
White Fang was first picked up by Bob.  Some got pretty nasty.  So again, if
you have anything to say, say it to me and not them.  I am the one taking
care of her now.
 
Maggie Zick
[Posted in FML issue 1716]