Winner of A Wonderful Life

I had been on the edge with my 9 year old baby Tuffy for many months
now. He was deaf and blind and has had heart disease. And he was
adrenal. Oh, and old as dirt for a ferret.

I have a professional baby picture of him almost as tiny as a rose,
curled up next to one, as black as a moonless night.. I had that
picture taken with my mother at my side that day. She was still
driving. She was still healthy, lived in her own home, and knew my
name. It seems like just a few years ago. You know?

This summer, Tuffy stopped eating two days before I was to go to
Wisconsin to meet my nephew and 3 children. I knew if I left him with
the pet sitters even for two days that I would come home to Tuffy cold
and dead.

I called Zoo and asked if she could watch him for me while I was gone.
Once again, Greg drove for the package. Wrapped in the soft thick fur
that Lupron injections bring. But already boney and weak.. His life
hung by half a heart. The other half lay silent.

Zoo brought him back from the precipice. But when I went to pick him
up...he was skeletal. She was still fighting for his life. Taking him
would have been his death warrent.So, he now had another home.Every
hour, every breathe he has had since then is a testament to the
knowledge and devotion of one of our shelter moms: my friend Zoo..

And don't you know? He celebrated another 4 months in tranquil comfort
using an unusual combo of drugs, feedings around the clock, and love..
His heart meds kept his half/ heart beating. Blindness and deafness
would not weaken his resolve.

Because of Zoo, Tuffy lived on to once again relish rolling through a
plethora of fresh paper towels. God, he loved rolls of towel ling. What
a riot to watch him, even as an old man, patting down and digging up
and sniffling through his toweling. Soup once again became the nectar
of life..

Hours and days of struggling to keep a helpless one alive creates a
strong bond. Yes, Zoo fell in love with Tuffy. It would have been hard
not to. .

He was a woman's ferret: a handsome silken cuddler. He was a clown.
He would lay on his back looking up at you so silly. I think he spent
hours a day on his back like an otter with his funny feet jutting up
in the air. I had my very own sea otter.

You know how some of us collect sea otter figurines? I stopped
collecting those statues after I found Tuffy.

Marvelous life... Free roam. Loads of buddies. Vets and meds as should
have been..Went on his leash to parks, and in his stroller, and romped
through snow each winter. He liked all ferrets. And all ferrets liked
him. Wanna fight? He would just roll over and lie on his back.. Ho-hum.
Diddle dee- dee.Oh. Hullo.

When he was too old to race through the tubes?... he lay on his back
by the exit so he could be with his friends in the heart of the action.
When he was unable to totter far from wherever his current nest was...
I would move him from room to room with the crowd and place him where
I knew he would want to be...waiting to be near his friends as they ran
riot in a room

There he would be waiting at the end of the tube, or in the tub where
the gang was hiding under towels, play fighting, and bathing. Just
breathing in the ambience. "That you leaping on me? Cool, dude. Check
out this otter surfing pose, man."

Tuffy: Inventor of the ferret who always uses the litter box. Cuddliest
dude ferret award 9 years running. Poster child for the perfect ferret.
And winner of A Wonderful Life.

May God keep you until we meet again.

Love you.
Mom

[Posted in FML 6182]