Ok...I've been putting off posting this, because I hate to make people
Cry. I do it often enough reading the FML...

I rescued a boy about a month ago...because people suck.

How I came about doing this, was (long story) I play trivia weekly at a
local bar with my neighbor, the recently-retired animal control officer
for our county (I live in a small mountain town with several other
small towns around). My neighbor and his (now ex-) coworker know I
have ferrets and asked if I wanted to adopt another. Here's the
'people suck' part...seems a ferret had been found in a dumpster at an
apartment complex in a nearby town, stuffed in a dog-food bag; left to
die. He was found by someone who lived at the complex when she went
to take trash out...she heard a rustling, saw movement, called her
boyfriend to come out...found a scrawny, matted, sad little ferret,
starving and near death. They took him in, cleaned him up, started
feeding him. She (fortunately) works at a dog groomers/pet supply/dog
sitter in another nearby town, so took him there since she found she
couldn't have pets at her place. They bathed him, trimmed his nails,
cleaned him up and fed him lots and lots of good food, as they put it,
'the first 3 weeks we had him, all he did was eat, eat, eat.' it was at
this point my neighbor asked me about taking him, since the groomers
have 8 dogs of their own, and a constant flow of dogs coming thru their
business. Not a practical situation to keep a ferret in. They loved him
dearly; had spent a lot of money on food, toys, a nice cage for him,
but knew they couldn't give him a good home.

So I took this boy in, and he has assimilated fabulously with my gang
of 3 boys, 2 girls. Everyone happy and getting along wonderfully. We
named him 'Dorje'...a Buddhist term. Fits him nicely; I jokingly call
him 'dorje porgy pudding pie' after the children's rhyme.

Problem is, this boy, even though he's in a forever home and has access
to unlimited food since he was saved from the dumpster then, and now,
doesn't know he will never go hungry again, and so he eats constantly.
He weighs well over 3 lbs and actually has fatty 'blobby' areas where
the pink skin is visible thru the fur above his thighs, also on his
belly, and is generally just plain huge. We have taken to calling him
'panzon' (any 'frida' fans?) since he is truly fat and pot-bellied. I
have a couple 'big' ferrets, and have had several over the years i've
had ferrets, but this is not just another 'big' ferret, this is just
plain a "fat" ferret.

I know this is not healthy. So, I need to ask...what can we do? He is
so happy with everyone else I hate to stress him out again after all
he's been through by isolating him in a separate cage and giving him
a 'lighter' food, and since my other 5 are doing fine I don't want to
have to switch everyone's food to keep him in with them. He's active,
playful, very fast(!) and frisky, not acting indolent and lazy from
his excess girth, but I worry about health problems from so much extra
weight.

So...help? Any ideas? Suggestions? There aren't ferret health clubs out
there; no 'curves' for ferrets...how do I slim this boy down? Or will
he possibly moderate his eating in time if i'm patient, and lose his
excess weight and be fine? I'm no expert, but based on teeth and coat i
put him still fairly youngish...around 3 years old. Hope to get him to
the vet soon, but in the meantime...

So, long story (that needed to be told)...and hope someone has some
ideas.

~sherrie, aka daoine o' the ferret queen

and the weezils: burleigh, pandora, ashby, emma-wheee, sebastien, and
now dorje, the luckiest ferret in the world.

Missing: pixie, felix, shay-shay mc-weasel, max, sascha, monty-boo,
jezebel, razzle, loki, sylvie, natasha the stranger, and dweezil, my
first...my one small star.

[Posted in FML 7594]