I would like to take the time now to than everyone who had responded.  All
the info was very helpful.
 
Our little PJ was laid to rest today by way of euthanasia.
 
The vet called this morning and the prognosis was not good.  She started
hemmoraging through her bowels, and bruising was occuring on her body..
Her blood just simply stopped it's clotting ability.
 
There was an option of doing a blood transfusion, but as the doctor was
talking, I could sense that even he didn't think that it would help, if
at all.  We decided it was best to let her suffering end.
 
PJ was given to me from a friend of mine in North Carolina.  I was on my
way back home from visiting my mother in Charleston.  PJ was our first
ferret ever.  Like newly made parents, we wentr out and bought EVERYTHING
for her.  A huge 3 tier cage, hammocks, toys, tunnels, etc.  People we knew
that don't own a fert thought we had lost our minds.  They were so wrong,
we had lost our hearts to this one little furry fert.
 
PJ wasn't really an active fert, more curious and subdued.  She spent the
better part of 3 weeks exploring her new home, and proving to us that what
we thought was fert proof was definitely not.
 
She loved to hide and fall asleep in the most bizarre of places, it is
because of this, we tred lighty around clothing when there is a missing
fert.  Places found asleep: behind the clothes basket wrapped in a
bathrobe, in a cloth pocket book, in a jacket, in a old favorite shirt of
mine (this one was her favorite place too), under the bed.
 
PJ didn't have a favorite toy really, but she did get caught running with
a balloon once.  It was 2 days after my recent birthday, I had 2 balloons
left from it.  One of those tinfoil type ones and one blue latex one.  Well
the helium was giving out and we didn't notice that the balloon had made it
to the floor.  She did however, my wife looked up and saw her running with
leaps and bounds across the kitchen floor with this half inflated balloon
in her mouth.  Well, we intercepted her and took the balloon away from her,
which wasn't easy..  She DID NOT want to let go..  I got it from her mouth,
and I laughed a little, next thing I know she lunged and latched on to the
balloon again.. :)  She was not very happy with me for taking away her new
found toy.
 
The one thing that she did enjoy was the ferret treat tipper.  Its like a
big weeble (dating myself here I do realize, thank you..) with holes on the
sides so that when it is tipped in a certain way, the treat will pop out.
When we got her, she was eating cat chow.  We had since realized and been
told that cat chow wasn't the best thing in the world to feed ferrets, so
we were weening her to the regular Total Ferret food we had gotten.  She
would nose that thing untill it was empty, and then some, just to be sure..
I am sure I will find bits of cat chow in some hidden corner for the next
few months.
 
Hobbes, our new fert which I named for one of my favorite cartoon
characters from the Calvin and Hobbes comic strip.  He was brought in as a
fert buddy.  PJ and Hobbes had there little rough and tumbles, but they got
along great.  We have a flex tube that is about 10 feet in length, and I
would put it in a circle..  They would chase each other in the tube for a
good 10 minutes before they tired each other out.
 
We are not sure if Hobbes was the cause of the illness.  One of the things
we noticed with PJ was that she was getting lethargic and inactive.  We
felt at that time that she was lonely.  After all, when I got her, she was
in a cage with four other ferts..  So we feared she was getting depressed.
Sadly, we were wrong.  I think that was when the start of the illness
started, and we mistook it for what it was.
 
So we now have our 10 week old Hobbes (I named him Hobbes before I knew
that was a actual classification..  go figure.  smirk)  He is doing fine
so far.  We are keeping a close eye on him for any changes.  He actually
yelled at me today.  Scared me too for a second.  He had gotten ahold of a
paper cup.  When I tried to take it away from him, he dooked at me really
loud.  At first I thought I had stepped on him.  Then I realized, he was
being angry with me for taking his toy..  *chuckles*
 
Today is August 10, 2001.  Today is the day I say my goodbyes to a small
friend that I had the honor of being with for four months.  PJ will always
be with me in my heart, and will be one of the many pets I will search for
when it is my time to go.  I sit here with tears in my eyes, barely able to
see the screen wishing that I had my friend back with me.  For now I have
to say goodbye and hope that she will forgive me for my ignorances towards
her.
 
As a family we will miss her greatly.  Her presence here has changed us in
way that we couldn't have imagined.
 
I end this message with the thanks to those who have sent me infomation.
The message will not go unused.
 
Mark, Kory and Hobbes.
[Posted in FML issue 3506]