To Andrea:
My deepest thoughts are with you.  I am all too familar with the passing
of a loved one.  Sometime this morning between 12:30 and 6 a.m. Whitney
passed quietly away.  She struggled long and hard battling the cancer
that consumed her.  Whitney was 7 1/2 years old which is old for a
healthy ferret, and I feel extremely blessed that we had the last 2 years
together through her illness.  I had just picked up a refill on her
prescriptions but there is someone else in our town whose ferret has
an insulinoma and he medicates him with Proglycem and Prelone so I'm
giving him the medication.  Whitney died peacefully in her sleep -
that is she just went to sleep and her body slowed to a stop.  I
monitored her up till 12:30 when I finally went to bed.  I said my
goodbyes and told her I loved her and that God would take good care
of her.  She is buried behind our home with her dad, sister, grandma,
and friends.  I'll miss her each day especially at the 6 a.m. and p.m.
hour because that was her medication time but I know that her suffering
is now over.
 
God certainly works in mysterious ways.  It seems that each time I have
a crisis in my life (death of a family member) he provides another
task to keep me going.  This time it is the closing of a local no-kill
dog/cat sanctuary that only has till Dec. 13 to place 150 dogs or the
County will have them destroyed.  It is because of this particular
organization that I was able to muster the courage to create, organize,
and operate Ferret Family Services, so I am diligently working on finding
homes for these unfortunate creatures, as well as continuing my own
services.  I also received a call to pick up a ferret that someone found
in their garage several days ago and was feeding it there, but couldn't
keep it, so I picked him up last night.  He seems o.k., nails aren't too
long so I can't imagine he was out very long, but his ears are swollen
with hard lumps.  He goes to the vet tomorrow and is quarantined until
I'm sure whatever is wrong is not contagious to the others.  Very
gentle and affectionate - he even gives kisses!  I have a habit of kissing
them on the tops of their heads as a comfort and to this day I've never
been bitten. Of course if you had someone hugging and kissing the daylights
out of you, you may not know how to react either!  ;-)
 
Hugs to all and my condolences to those who have lost their loved ones in
the past and future.  tle
[Posted in FML issue 1016]