Sorry about my temporary disappearance.  Midterms should be left to the
teenyboppers I attend college with.  You'd think professors would take
pity on students over 30!  Maggie, I feel for you girl!  I've had neat
professors and icky ones.  But the ones that have been most fun are the
"Panama hat" type.  Well, all except for the old guy in the purple silk
shirt and purple beret who brought his wife to class so she'd have
someplace to chew her nails.  But then that's another story!
 
Just to catch up:
WAY TO GO DERVISH!  Thanks for the smile, I needed it.  Not sure you should
have posted it though.  I can see the headlines now: "Single men release
daredevil ferrets in mall.  Hundreds of women exposed."
 
As for the question about a small dog and ferrets.  I had a Shitzu for 8
years.  He was a rescue too.  Yep, big sign on my forehead "attention
strays: sucker here".  I had always wanted one and took this guy from an
icky person.  I can only speak from experience, but ferret people are the
cuddly, kissy, giggly type.  Shitzu's are not!  He wasn't a cuddly, fun dog.
He was temperamental.  As for my ferret, she thought he was just a big fuzzy
ferret and attempted to treat him as such.  She'd sneak around the corner
and pounce on his bottom.  He would then growl, give her a dirty look and
leave.  It got to the point where he'd go in the other room and hide when
he heard her cage door open.  They didn't hurt each other, but a shitzu is
definitely not similar in personality to a ferret.  But then what is!
 
To all of those who have lost a ferret or other loved creature: my time is
near with my baby and I share your loss.  And yes, lizardy type loved ones
do cross the bridge with the rest.  No one should feel guilty because they
did what they could with the knowledge they were given.  You all cared and
that made their little furry (or scaly!) lives blessed.  We all do the best
we can to protect our babies.  Mine disappeared one day and after a mass
search, someone thought to open the fridge and out she fell.  Afterwards it
was so funny.  She landed with all four legs spread out like there was an
earthquake, with this look of disbelief on her face and she was shivering.
After the initial shock and comfort to her, we all had to laugh at her
expression.  But it came so close to being tragic.  The keeper of the
bridge has a book of each fuzzies time, just like humans.
 
On to the update I promised a week ago.  Snickers isn't doing so great.
She's my five year old fuzzy who was rescued at one year for those of you
who need a refresher.  She had lost an enormous amount of weight in just 3
weeks and her energy level was down.  The vet weighed her in at 6 ounces.
She's always been tiny but with the weight loss she looks like she did when
I got her.  She appears to have a right adrenal tumor.  The vet was very
knowledgeable but his bedside manner is just too business like for me.  He
didn't even ask for a fuzzy kiss!  Snickers was a real trooper with all the
pinching and poking.  We discussed options for 1/2 hour.  Unfortunately, it
doesn't seem like she is a great candidate for much.  She seems to be too
weak to tolerate treatment and since things are progressing at an amazing
rate, by the time she might be it will be too late.  He was very patient in
talking to me and did seem concerned.  But the end result was to keep her
comfortable and feed her high calorie "surgery food".  Her suffering, life
expectancy and quality of life were all taken into account and it just
didn't look good.  I didn't quite want to know the hard answers like how
will it end and how long does she have, but then sometimes I do.  The lump
has grown about another 1/2 inch in the last week but she's eating the new
food and isn't losing more weight.  She's still a cuddler and loves to
kiss.  Such a sweetie.  Say some prayers for her.
[Posted in FML issue 2481]