Please welcome Smokey to the Rainbow Bridge, and show him around.
 
He was a 10 year old Marshall Farms ferret whom I have been fostering for
Fuzztek Shelter for the past 3 and 1/2 years or so.  (His original owner
had had him since he was a kit.  She had to give him up when he was 6,
though, since she became pregnant and her husband insisted ..)
 
Smokey was a beautiful little ferret.  He started life as a silver, then
became a dark eyed white as he became older.  In the past year, he became
a rather bald little ferret, but he still had fur on his face and front
paws, and he looked adorable.
 
Smokey always greeted everyone with a heartfelt kiss, even when he wasn't
feeling well himself.  This past summer (on Father's Day!) he had to
go in for an emergency PU surgery, and he was kissing me in the vet's
waiting room as he waited to be seen.  I'm very lucky to have such an
excellent vet.  who was willing to come in on a Sunday to perform
surgery ..  and able to operate on a 10 year old ferret successfully!
 
Despite his baldness and a few spots of visible skin cancer, Smokey acted
and apparently felt very healthy right up until the end.  It's been
getting hard lately to keep weight on him, and I made all sorts of Duck
Soup variations to try to entice him to eat.  Right up until last night,
he was eagerly lapping the soup from a pipette ..  and kissing me in
between licks. :->
 
This morning, though, he woke up with a sinus/ear/eye infection, and the
whole left side of his face was swollen.  (Ironically enough, my left
eye and cheek were also irritated when I woke up this morning ... in
sympathy, maybe?) His vet.  said that it was "time", and he sent him to
the Rainbow Bridge.
 
Please greet him there, give him some raisins (he loves them!) and maybe
a Cheweasel (he liked moving them, but not chewing on them), and remind
him again that I love him.  His ferret brothers will miss him very much,
too ..
 
- Ela
[Posted in FML issue 4001]