Puffy was an albino male.  For his first 5 years we thought he was a
female... ahem.  I'm hoping I'm not the first to have made that mistake.
We discovered this very embarassing detail when he had x-rays.  Males
have a "special bone."  Yep, we're ferret experts, alright.  Even now, I
have to backspace and type "he" all the time.  He had a little stuffed
bear which he would carry and put back in his cage, usually in the food
bowl.  We thought he had very good motherly instincts.  Apparently, he
was a good father.  When we buried Puff's body at Josie's mountain, we
put his bear under his arm.
 
During the last 8 or 9 months, Puff had insulinoma.  He lived on meat
baby food and Nutrical, along with Pred.  On the 29th of last month,
Puff started having problems breathing.  We got him to the vets the next
morning.  Our doc did some x-rays and found out that Puff had something
in his lungs.  He wasn't sure if it was fluid or a mass in his lungs.
It turns out it was both.  The vet could have stuck a needle in her
to find out what it was, but my wife and I thought Puff has suffered
enough.  My wife and I had to make that hard decision.  We let him go.
Afterwards, the vet drew some fluid out of his lungs which turned out to
be blood.  It turns out that Puff probably had a mass in his lungs which
had probably burst.  There was nothing the vet could have done to fix
it.  It had probably metasticized from the insulinoma tumors.  Puff had
earlier undergone insulinoma surgery, but there weren't any visible
tumors, just micro-tumors which couldn't be removed.  The vet removed
some other suspicious tumors that he found, possibly lymphomas, and that
probably prolonged Puff's life.
 
He was a really smart ferret.  We're going to miss him.  My wife still
thinks of him as a "her" and so do I, if I admit it.  He was named after
the Powerpuff Girls (Powerpuff was his/her original name, but we ended
up calling him Puff).  We named "her" that because, unlike most ferrets,
instead of just jumping straight down off the couch, he would take a
running leap with his front arms stretched out and fly off the couch!  He
would play chase, and we would alternately take turns chasing each other
throughout the house.  He had lots of spirit, and it was painful to see
him slow down from the insulinoma.  He lived about 6 and a half years.
We're really going to miss him.  I guess that's what took me so long to
post this.
 
Would one of you greeters make sure that he's met Deezel up on the
bridge?  Deezel (a true female) was his cagemate for the longest time,
until she passed almost two years ago.  I'm sure she knew he was a male.
They've probably already been snickering about how clueless we'd been.
Could you make sure Deezel shows Puff where the red licorice is?  They
both liked cherry and strawberry licorice.  Puff hasn't had any for such
a long time, and now there's no reason not to.
 
Lately, I see lots of Puff in Jasper, another albino male of ours.  He
likes to fly, too.  Whenever I think about it, at times, I alternate
between laughing to myself and tearing up.  Anybody watching me might
think I had psychological problems -- no, just ferrets.  I guess that's
just what they do to you.  Damn weasels...
 
http://us7.50webs.com/puff.htm
 
Roary and Yvonne
Albuquerque, NM
[Posted in FML issue 4837]