A plea to those considering surrendering their elderly ferrets
 
Over the past year, I have fostered eight ferrets for whom homes could not
be found due to their age, terminal medical conditions, status as biters,
or a combination of the three.  This weekend, I lost my sweet second-hand
ferret, Pippen, my fourth loss this year, who was cast aside not only by
his first owner, but also his second.
 
Pippen spent the first five years of his life in a loving home until his
owner gave him up because her fiancie didn t like him.  Then, he spent
another year with a second owner, who decided to foster dogs, and she gave
him up because the dogs made him nervous.
 
When I brought him home a year ago, I knew our time together would be
limited.  But I hated the thought of such a sweet old guy spending his
final days in a shelter, instead of with me, where I could give him the
love, pampering, and attention he so greatly deserved.  Pippen began
suffering from epilepsy in March of this year, which my vet worked very
hard to control.  In the beginning of August, his seizures returned.
Just over a week ago, a routine X-ray revealed cardiomyopathy, and a
complete blood profile revealed renal disease.
 
Throughout this last week, I religiously gave Pippen his various
medications, waking up in the middle of the night to care for him.  But he
grew more ill, and when we returned to see our vet this weekend, his heart
had grown more enlarged, his breathing was labored, hyperlipidemia was
present, and a lymph node was severely enlarged.  My vet thought (as did
I) that Pippen s quality of life was rapidly diminishing, as his seizures
became more frequent and he started vocalizing pain during urination and
defecation, and with the prospect of death from a heart attack a serious
possibility, I opted to end Pippen s pain.
 
I have spent the weekend consumed by a mixture of the following emotions:
thankful that I was able to give Pippen the love he so desperately needed,
grief over mourning the death of a companion who will be so dearly missed,
and anger that not one but two people decided Pippen was an inconvenience
to be tossed aside when he was no longer needed.
 
It seems that recently, both on the FML and at the shelter where I
volunteer, more and more people are looking for homes for elderly ferrets
who no longer fit into the  convenience  of their lives.  Perhaps this
should not surprise me, as more and more cultures push the human elderly
into facilities where strangers care for them in their final days.
 
I implore you to consider things from your ferret s perspective before you
decide to buy a puppy, move into a pet-free apartment, or any other of the
myriad excuses I have witnessed when someone decides their ferret, who has
been there for so many years and loved them unconditionally, no longer
fits into their lifestyle.
 
And yes, as I cope with the grief, I remain angry with Pippen s former
owners (and all the others like them) who so nonchalantly rip older
ferrets, who have such a small chance for adoption, from the only homes
they have ever known.  In the best possible scenario, someone will come
along and adopt your cast-offs, caring for them, and demonstrating more
grief at their death than you did at their surrender.
 
Megan
 
Missing Shnookums and Frisky, whose owner gave them up to join the circus;
Goblin, whose owner gave her up because she bit; and Pippen.
[Posted in FML issue 3531]