Sandy
 
RIP October 8, 2005
 
She was a happy girl.  she told you secrets!  She really did.  She would
come up to your feet and flop on her side and look up at you.  then when
you picked her up she would want to sniff your ears..  Such a cute girl.
 
Sandy came into the shelter as a boarder with her cage-mate Harley in
December 2004.  At the shelter they found a bunch of new friends.  Both
Sandy and Harley had a hard time adjusting to their new surroundings.
Harley got depressed and required a lot of TLC.  While Sandy was just a
little stressed out until she found out that she could run around and
clean a bunch of kids.  oh she loved to clean their tails.  Whenever new
kids came in, it was her job to make sure they were clean and ready for
our house.  Sandy and Harley fit right in with our other kids and were
all soon given free-roam of the back of the house.  Sandy could be found
many times to be sleeping on my bed or in my closet.  It didn't matter if
she had company or not.  she was there and that's all that mattered to
her.
 
Her parents came back for her and Harley after being deployed with the
military for 7 months.  We sat and talked about the depression issues
that both (many Harley) had and how I was concerned about them having to
move around again.  He was going to be staying in the military so they
would be moving around a lot and may not be able to keep them later on
down the road.  They decided it would be in the best interest for the two
kids to stay with us as permanent residents.  Sandy had started to show
signs of adrenal.  Just some fur loss and a little swelling on her vulva.
I was going to be making an appointment for her to get adrenal surgery
done.  We had one kid ahead of her that just got done, so she was next in
line.
 
Saturday late afternoon I found her on the floor of my closet.  She
wasn't moving though I could see she was breathing.  I thought
"insulinoma!".  Or worse.  maybe somehow I had stepped on her before and
didn't know it!  I rushed her out to the dining room table and Shawn and
I got to work on her.  A little Kyro Syrup on her gums and a heating pad,
a blankie and mommy to hold her.
 
She was having a hard time breathing and it hurt.  We tried getting some
water into her but she wasn't swallowing so we stopped that.  We did
sub-q on her.  maybe an ounce.  Not really dehydrated.  Her daddy held
her for a bit after she pee'd on Mommy.  Mommy took her back and we did
a little bit of pain medication.
 
Now.  the reason we didn't rush her to the vet is because of a couple
things.  one, our vet clinic was closed and the on call vet is NOT ferret
friendly - told me one time to just let the ferret die.  yeah right!  The
other reason was, we knew it wouldn't help.
 
We had checked her all over for signs of being stepped on.  nothing.  We
were so hoping for insulinoma..  But.  just after 6 pm. I had her on my
chest.  My hand gently over her chest so I could feel her heart beat.  It
was going fast.  then it slowed down a lot..  Then started back up.  and
I thought.  she has a heart problem.  But then.  it slowed down one last
time and she was gone.
 
I asked Shawn to get the lights because I think she just passed away.
when I looked at her.  I knew she was gone.  Then I got mad at myself
because I told her that it was ok for her to go.  but I didn't want her
to really go.Shawn brought Harley up to see her and he sniffed her and
then curled up with her and went to sleep.
 
We left him there for just a little bit before we had to put her up.  I
wanted a necropsy done on her to find out what happened and to rule out
accident.  On Monday we took her in.  The vet said that she had 5-10
nodules on her lungs.  He said that she could have had an undiagnosed
phenomena (don't think I spelled it right).  But with the lungs and also
looks like she had a heart condition.  it was just too much for her.  She
never showed signs of being sick at all.  Within 3 hours of finding her
sick.  we lost her..
 
Her remains should be back this week (private cremation).  Before we took
her in we said the Rainbow Bridge Poem.
http://www.newrainbowbridge.com/NRB/rbpoem.htm
 
May you forever tell your secrets to the ones that have passed on before
you.
 
Love you...
 
Mommy and Daddy.
Joanne and Shawn Ferret Corner Shelter
[Posted in FML issue 5030]