I think that this is one of the saddest moments of our lives. I regret
to say that our little Sweet Pea passed away on Thursday July 15, 1999
at approximately 3:30 to 4:00 pm at the vets office.
 
Sweet Pea was a gorgeous little female who was found by a lady in her
backyard one day.  She kept Sweet Pea for a little over a month as she
hoped that someone would claim her.  Nobody ever claimed Sweet Pea so the
woman contacted me and asked if our shelter would help her out.  If only
she had sent Sweet Pea here earlier so that I could have had the surgery
done sooner.
 
I went right out and got little Sweet Pea and brought her home.  She was
around 4-6 months old from what the vet and I was able to tell.  She was in
heat and from the looks of things she may have been in heat for some time
now.  I set up a surgery date to have her spayed right away which was for
7-15-99 at 8:30 in the morning.
 
Sweet Pea was so active!  She dooked and did all kinds of crazy things when
we let her out to play everyday.  She could war dance with the best of
them.  She wanted to meet the gang so bad, but I decided that could wait
until her recovery from surgery.  My 10 year old daughter Krysta just loved
Sweet Pea to pieces and Sweet Pea just loved to pass out those kisses.  She
loved to kiss our noses and our lips.  Ohhh, what a little lover! :)
 
Well on surgery morning we all got up extra early to play with little Sweet
Pea and to get her carrier all fixed up for her visit to the vets.  She
chased my daughter around and made all kinds of verbal racket as they
played and giggled together.  :) My oh my did Sweet Pea ever have a voice!
She was the most verbal fert we had ever met.  She made us so happy in just
the short time she was here with us and we had already made the decision to
keep her in our family instead of adopting her out.  We knew we were
already to much in love with her to let someone else adopt her into their
home.... Nope!  Sweet Pea was staying with us. :)
 
I explained to Krysta that Sweet Pea was going to be fine and that she
would come through her surgery with flying colors and that there was no
reason to worry.  I never once thought....well you know.  As a matter of
fact we were kind of looking forward to her surgery day so that she could
come home, recover, and then meet the gang for the first time (well they
all got to see and sniff each other through the cages, but that was all).
I knew Sweet Pea was going to love meeting and playing with our other
ferrets.  I knew she would be really happy then.  I feel awful now. :(
 
When we got to the vets office on that morning, Krysta and I held Sweet Pea
and gave her kisses.  We happily told her that we would see her later and
that we loved her.  We put our fingers through the carrier bars and petted
her nose one last time and said bye bye Sweet Pea (we said this like it was
no big deal because we didn't really think it was).  How sad.
 
We were suppose to go pick her up at 3:30 in the afternoon on this same
day.  The vet called me at 2:45 and said that Sweet Pea was very weak and
that she had really had a hard time with surgery.  He said that her ovaries
were huge and that she had/has that anemia that female ferts get when they
are in heat for too long.  He said that he wanted to keep her overnight at
no extra charge to me because they wanted to monitor her closely.  I was
sad and shocked.  I thought she would just be fine and at 3:30 she would
come home to us again!  He said that they had been working on her for
several hours now trying to keep her alive/stable.  He said he would call
me back around 7 pm that same evening to let me know how she was at that
point.  I cried and I prayed.  I didn't tell Krysta that the vet called.
I just told her that we couldn't pick Sweet Pea up today because the Dr.
wanted to keep her a little longer before she could come home.  I didn't
want Krysta to worry yet, just incase Sweet Pea came out of it okay.
 
We had to run to the store about an hour later and I thought that since the
vets office was located on the same road as our house (just a few miles
down) that we would swing in and I could drop off a stool sample that I had
from one of my other rescues that I thought might have worms and then I
could check on Sweet Pea while I was in the office.  This way if he said
that she was doing worse I would have to then tell my daughter so that me
and her could see Sweet Pea one last time alive and kiss her just incase
she didn't make it.  I made Krysta sit on the other side of the waiting
room so that she couldn't overhear any of my conversation with the Dr. or
receptionist.  The receptionist told the Dr. that I was there to bring in a
stool sample and that I thought I would ask about Sweet Pea while I was
there.  The Dr. came out of one of the exam rooms and called to me to come
there.  I walked toward the room and Krysta got up to follow.  I told her
to stay in the waiting room and that I would be right back.  The Dr. told
me that Sweet Pea was a real fighter, but she was just too tiny and young
and that she had been in heat way too long and just couldn't hold on any
longer and had passed away.  He asked if I would like to take her body home
to bury or would I like them to take care of her for me.  I chose to take
her home because we have acres and acres of woods and yard which would be
perfect.  I didn't want Krysta to find out like this...not here..  not in
the vets office.  I told the Dr. to wrap her in her blanket and put her
back in her carrier so that I could take her home.  I then thought I would
just take the carrier out to the waiting room and tell Krysta that we were
going to take the carrier home for now.  This way I could explain it to her
at home in private so that she could express herself and not feel like she
had to keep in all inside while we were in the waiting room in front of
everyone.  The Dr. came back in with the carrier and I just totally lost
it.  He was so sorry.  So was I.  I couldn't fight the tears or the pain
and when I walked out into the waiting room Krysta started yelling to
me..."mom, mom what's wrong?" She then just started crying her little eyes
out.  She was...well we were both just broken.  I put down the carrier and
we stood there in the waiting room holding each other and crying for what
seemed like forever.  We went to the car and went directly home.
 
I explained everything to her and she put her arms around me and laid her
head on my shoulder and we both cried for about an hour.  We were
devastated. :(  We decide to make funeral arrangements for our little
Sweet Pea so that when her dad got home from work real soon we could all
bury her together.  We picked a spot in the far right corner of our yard
right where our yard meets the woods.  Right between two lovely trees on
a small mound/hill.  When we got back inside Krysta decided to make a few
pictures to bury with Sweet Pea and she also decided to write a little
something from us to Sweet Pea and she said she was going to read it when
we buried her (How sweet I thought).
 
She drew a nice picture of a ferret (Sweet Pea side view) with a harp and
halo.  She colored it so lovely.  Krysta has always had a special talent
of drawing so this picture looked wonderful. :)  She then drew two smaller
pictures on two more separate pieces of paper.  One was a picture of Sweet
Pea in the house on the floor.  It looked like she was running and Krysta
wrote "DOOK DOOK" and "HONK HONK" around the picture and in small letters
she wrote "Sweet Pea before surgery" so that it showed Sweet Pea running
through the house happy.  The other picture was of the vet building with
lots of clouds and the sun in the sky.  Sweet Pea was drawn in mid air on a
cloud with a harp in her hand and a halo on her head.  It said "Sweet Pea
after surgery".  These pictures were so cute! :)  She made one copy of each
picture and one copy of her speech so that we could put them in her big
Tupperware box with this past school years school stuff (I put everything
she draws at home and all of her school papers each year in this box and
at the end of the school year we seal it up with the lid and we write the
school year, grade, her age, teacher, and school in marker on the lid and I
keep them forever).  We dated all of the stuff that she made Sweet Pea and
we decided to bury one set with Sweet Pea and keep the other.  Before we
went outside I asked Krysta if she wanted to see Sweet Pea one last time
and that Sweet Pea wasn't all yucky or anything (because I had already
looked at her).  I told her it was up to her.  She said yes.  I showed her.
She cried and petted Sweet Pea's soft hair one last time.  She was curled
almost into a ball like they do when they sleep.  She looked the same.
Soft and sweet.  Just looked like she was sleeping is all.
 
Dave dug the hole and we took Sweet Pea out to her final resting place.  We
put her in a small container without the lid (for now) and we placed her
beside the hole.  Krysta then talked to Sweet Pea about the pictures that
she made her as she held each one up for Sweet Pea to see and then she
placed each one nicely on top of her body in the container.  Krysta then
read her speech out loud for us all to hear.  It went just like this.....
 
 >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
 
Dear Sweet Pea,          (Our Special Ferret)         7-15-99
 
Me, my mom, and my dad all love you very much.  Your brothers and sisters
love and miss you greatly.  Remember Baby, Slash, Possum, Mouse, Ringo,
Roach, Rooter, Bear, Smokey, Sassy, Rosie and Smokey because they will
always remember you.  We all love you very much and we are all very sad
that you died.  You can take everything I made you to heaven.  I just want
you to know that I will never ever forget you.  I love you now and I will
love you forever.  You will never leave mine or the families heart.  You
will always be at my side.  You will always be my little Sweet Pea, my
little sister, and my best friend.  Goodbye Sweet Pea.
 
                        Love,
     Krysta, Michelle (mom), and Dave (dad)
 
 >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
 
This speech just broke my heart.  Krysta was a real trooper while she read
that speech out loud to Sweet Pea.  She cried all the way through the last
two sentences of the speech.  Dave even cried.  I thought we were going to
die.  Here I am crying again.  After Krysta finished her speech and cried
for awhile as I held her...she reached down and put her speech into the
container on top of Sweet Pea's body.  I reminded Krysta about the flowers
and she ran off.  She brought back a flower of each color that we had in
the garden.  Dark purple velvet, light purple, medium purple, orange,
yellow, red, pink, and a darkish maroon like color.  She placed them in
the container on Sweet Pea's body and Dave sealed the lid into place.  He
placed her in the ground as we cried all over again.  When Dave was
finished he placed a great square like stone half into the ground for a
head stone.  It stuck up about two or so feet out of the ground when he
finished.  We talked about how next year we would plant something special
on top of her grave.  It's shady and nice between those two trees.  Nothing
but woods. :)  We all held hands and went back to the house.  Later Krysta
looked out the kitchen window as it started to get dark and she yelled
for us to come to her in the kitchen quick.  We went to her and she was
pointing at something out the window and smiling. :)  She was showing us
that you could see Sweet Pea's headstone on her grave as plain as day from
the house.  Even though it is kind of far away and almost right into the
beginning of our woods... you could still see her headstone between those
two great trees. :)  You can see it from any of the windows facing the
back woods. :)  Lovely that is.
 
As I sit at my computer and write Sweet Pea's story for all to hear... I
reach across with my right hand to the window by my side and pull back it's
curtain.  Sure enough...with tear filled eyes... I too... can see her grave
from here.  I love you Sweet Pea and I miss you so much.  Thanks to all who
read this and tears and dooks to all those sick and dying fuzzies out there
and to all those who have already passed away.  I would like to also say I
am sorry to all of the parents that have hurt and still hurt over the loss
of their fuzzbutts because now, I too, know how you are really feeling. :(
 
Michelle (HeadFerret) Little Orphans Ferret Shelter & Rescue
[Posted in FML issue 2744]