I know that many of you have read about Abercrombie and Fitch before, so I
wanted to ask you to be thinking about Fitch today.  On Saturday, I took
them both outside on their leashes to play in the sun of our first real
spring day.  We were getting back into the car, when Fitch decided he
wanted to keep playing, slipped out of the car door and into the street.  I
couldn't stop him, and he was hit in the head by a car.  The car never
stopped.
 
I rushed him to the Purdue University Veterinary Teaching Hospital, where a
really great vet took him over.  He was bleeding from his mouth and would
not move his head.  Also, the vet said that he was "spiraling", or kept
moving in one direction and rolling over and over, as if he had no
orientation.  After many tries to get an IV line into him (they had very
little experience with ferrets, and his veins were so small), they finally
succeeded, and have been giving him antibiotics, steroids and fluids.  I
got little sleep that night, waiting for the vet to call and making sure
that Abercrombie was okay without his best pal.
 
I went to visit him yesterday, thinking that all I could possibly do was
keep him from feeling any more pain.  Instead, I began to have hope, since
the ferret I saw didn't look at all like the one I had brought in the day
before.  His skin is pink, he urinates and defecates, he has feeling in his
feet (and pulls his feet away if you tickle him), his eyes open (although
his left eye is quite swollen and doesn't open completely), and he sniffs
vigorously when he hears my voice, or when he smells my hands or clothes.
His shoulders and front paws are immobilized with a wrap, because they
finally ran an IV line with fluids into his scapula directly in the bone
marrow, and he is having trouble regulating his temperature.  What
surprised me (and the vet) the most is that when I finally decided I had to
leave, he raised his head with his eyes wide open and looked at me as if to
say "Okay Mom, I'm ready to go!".  When the vet picked him up, he did the
same thing, and licked my hands.  I wanted to cry I was so happy, since it
now looks as if he could possibly make it.
 
I'm going to see him today at noon, and I'm bringing some banana baby food,
to see if he will eat on his own, and his favorite squeaky toy.  The vet
said that the 48 hours will be really critical, since it is likely to
indicate what he will be like long-term.  I don't want to give up on him,
since he didn't deserve what happened to him, and has brought so much love
to so many people.  He is one of my best friends in the world, and has been
with me through a very hard time here in graduate school.  I just wanted to
let all of you know, so you and your fuzzies can keep Fitch in your prayers
and thoughts.
 
Thank you,
 
Marcy Brown
[Posted in FML issue 1132]