Christmas this year is being celebrated with a mixture of enjoyment and
grief. Our little girl, Itachi, is dying. She is our first ferret and
she took our learning how to care for a ferret in stride - she played,
war danced and bullied the cats (who outweigh her by about 10-12 lbs!).
I don't think she has been around other ferrets since she was bought
as a kit, we got her when she was 1.5 years old from someone we knew
who felt it was better to give her to a better home than keep her with
the large number of reptiles and dogs that also needed attention. We
brought her home and she instantly charmed her way into our hearts (and
under the cats skin) with her bouncy, frisky, playful self. We did
EVERYTHING wrong in the beginning (except feed her veggies), but she
still thrived and showered us with weasel kisses, as well as making
sure our feet were pest-free. Over the past few years, she has been
battling lymphoma - rather successfully, considering she had very
little medical care owing to the 6 hour round trip drive to a ferret
vet. But she had her soup fed to her twice a day for over 2 years,
including medicines that helped her regain fur and energy. We moved
to IN this summer and took her to the vet, only to be told she had a
rather large tumor on her pancreas. Due to her advanced age, we decided
to not undergo surgery, but instead to continue palliative care. Over
the past two months, she has been slowing down a lot - no weasel war
dancing, no ferrying her duckies around the house, even a lack of
interest in bullying the cats. This past week, she has become downright
lethargic - to the point that we constantly fear that she will have
passed while we were sleeping or at school. We have no funds to take
her to the vet (they get the good food, we get rice and ramen until
after the new year), so we are doing everything we can to make her
comfortable. All we are asking is for her to be able to spend one last
Christmas with us, or even make it to the anniversary of her joining
our family - The beginning of Jan., but realistically, we know she
might not make it through finals (this Thursday).

So please, pray for our little fuzzbutt to wait a few more days before
crossing the Bridge, pray that she knows how much she will be missed,
and pray for our family - we lost a beloved relative last Christmas, we
don't want to do this again. But please - go hug your babies, give them
a treat - even if it is just a lick of peanut butter - love them with
everything you have.

These last few days or weeks are going to be difficult, but she will
be spoiled.

FireRose

[Posted in FML 7270]