Dear Ferret Folks-
 
Sabrina the Blind Bat-Biter has been trying to tell me something for a
while now, and I think I finally understand.  Until a few months ago she
was never the least bit cuddly, now she is content to lie on her back in
my arms and look at me with her sightless, opaque gaze while I stroke her
for a long, long time.  I think she is looking far beyond me, over and
away to where the Bridge is.  She is so thin now, I can feel the shape of
her bones right through her fur, curved and whorled like the lines of a
chello.
 
The end of winter has always thinned my ferrets down a bit, and that is
normal, but this is not normal-or perhaps it is for a ferret who just
recently has begun to feel the years.  Her life has turned a corner in
some way that I can't really explain very well, but I can see the change
and it is profound.  She is failing.
 
I wish you could have seen her in her prime, deep brown eyes the color
of raisins that shone out from behind her mask, a lush dark coat like
her cousin the mink.  She was sleek in the best sense of the word, and
waddled from place to place like she owned them both.  She reminded me
of Elizabeth Taylor at her best, there was just something very red carpet
about her whole demeanor.
 
I have no experience with elderly ferrets.  It is a journey we are taking
together.  For all I know, she will be like this for years, just to mess
with my head.  That would be so Sabrina...
 
Alexandra in Massachusetts
 
Switch the Kit: "Aunt Sabrina, you're really old!"
Sabrina; "Yes, and I can still kick your ass, kid."
[Posted in FML issue 3797]