This is Susie Lee for the elderlies and hospice-care ferrets (and with
Wes Hurley) at the Pensacola Ferret And Dove Sanctuary.
 
And this is about Evander Brown Ferret.
 
Evander Brown came into our care along with five other completely
nameless cage-mates who were rescued from a dumpster by a Very Kindly
Human living near Crestview, Florida.  (one among these, who was Little
One Wandra, had to be separated from the others as she fought with all
of them, but she loved humans, and has since found her very own family
of humans complete with a tiny dog and a mellow cat to happily bully...
I mean, get along with.  Wandra and her new humans are deleriously
overjoyed with each others' company, and so at least One of Evander's
"old" friends has done right well for herself).  At the outset, the
ferrets among this group who plainly needed attention were Evander Brown
and Poindexter White, both neutered males.  Their other three mates,
spayed females (Diamond Tiara, a blackeyed white, Onyx Olinda, a
blacksable, and Emmaline The Dear, a silver) all checked-out okay, but
Evander had a large growth of skin cancer inside his left ear and was
extremely pear-shaped, and Poindexter had very little of his white hair
and was whip-cord thin.  So Evander had surgery on the ear which was
entirely successful, and Poindexter had a Lupron shot to counter the
adrenal disease symptoms.
 
Then, a few months later, Evander Brown began to lose his brown fur and
over-eat his former pear-shape to outrageous proportions.  Our vet
consulted with Dr. Weiss who said that in some adrenal disease cases, the
production of cortisol from the over-stimulated adrenal gland could cause
the overeating.  So we had to separate Evander Brown from the others and
limit his food to Just so-much (in his case, half a cup of kibble,
re-filled twice per day so that he'd eat just a cup's worth every 24
hours) and also not nose out the others from eating.  We put him in his
own cage Nearby to the other four, (now Poindexter White, Onyx Olinda,
Diamond Tiara, and Emmaline The Dear) so that they could still see and
sniff one another, to know that their buddy wasn't missing or lost.
 
On 3-24-03, at 6 a.m., three hours before Evander Brown's scheduled
surgery for adrenal cancer excision, Wes was working in the
morning-bright room where all these (abovenamed) ferrets were , and he
saw, a plain as could be, a white ferret run up to Simone So-Lovely's and
Felicia Ferrette's cage, who recently used to live directly below Evander
Brown's quarters and were on "sniffling terms", and then up to the
enormous cage with Evander's four former mates...and disappear right
before his eyes, Just as he was wondering which ferret could have gotten
loosed.
 
This was something Wesley had Never seen so directly before...either
it was a former ferret which we had cared for (two years ago, we had
a lovely darkeyed white , turned in by her former owner, named Baby
Darkeyes who was lost to us thru incurable liver disease) OR this had
been a genuine ferret angel, come to bring comfort and notice to all of
Evander Brown's other ferret-friends.  We'll never know until it's our
turns to cross over, I guess.
 
Anyway, Evander Brown made it through his surgery, the vet wasn't too
happy about the damaged liver and kidneys he found, though, and we'll
never know what Evander's and his mates' history was, that could have
caused the damages that were found.  He came back with us to recover, and
from his return at 4 pm through 11 p.m., he was accepting small amounts
of fluids and watered-down "duck soup" every hour.  Then appeared to go
into a deep sleep with normal breatheing.  At 2 a.m., his breatheing
became shallow and irregular, and he was unresponsive and unable to
swallow.  The lower abdomen swelled out with tight interstitial fluid and
then, while Wes was on the phone with the vet at 2:40 a.m, he ceased to
breathe.  The night-shift vet we spoke to hadn't been advised of the
surgery findings, but when she was, she said that it may have been the
damaged liver shut down altogether, which would have caused the other
symptoms, and there wasn't much anyone could have done.  Of course we
were hearbroken, once again losing a gentle and good little soul like
Evander Brown.
 
And then, an hour later, we remembered the mysterious white ferret who
came to Evander's friend's cages and then disappeared...right before
Wesley's eyes.
 
Another hour later, a voice, like a little boy's voice, yet unlike...
saying "I'm alright, I'm happy, here." ...it can have been none other
than Evander Brown Ferret.
 
Susie Lee of The Pensacola Ferret & Dove Sanctuary
http://www.angelfire.com/theforce/ferret_rescuer/index.html
Rest in gentlest Peace and happiness: Snuggles LuWeasey, Indigo
Iridescent, Molly Blue-Angel, Smokey Joe Oldster, Baby Darkeyes,
BabyDoll Babushka, and now, Evander Brown Ferret
[Posted in FML issue 4098]