Hello Everyone,
 
Cher mentioned yesterday introducing some of our babies who are no longer
with us.  I would really like to do that with our first darling, Meagan.
 
Once upon a time :) , my husband Alan and I had a pet-sitting business.  We
had pet sat ferrets a time or two but they were usually sleeping through the
whole time we would go to feed them (they all had the run of the house and
would hide in their little spots).  So we didn't really know too much about
them.
 
However, our ad for the business was in the phone book.  One night over a
Labour Day weekend, when Alan was out, I got a phone call.  The person said,
"Hello--my husband and I are from out of town.  We were driving in tonight,
just on the outskirts of town, and we almost ran over a little animal.  We
stopped to make sure it was all right, and it was a ferret.  It was fine,
but when we tried to leave, it ran after us and cried.  My husband is
sitting out on the highway with it and I came in to town to try to find
someone to take it, because the Humane Society is closed.  Will you take it?"
 
Would I take it?  No small sad animal will get passed over by either one of
us.  So I told her we could take it if she could bring it to me, because my
husband had the car.  They brought her (in a little cardboard box) and left
her with us.  She was starving.  I fed her some Science Diet and she ate a
whole bowlful.  She screamed when I tried to pick her and the food up at the
same time to move them to what I thought was a better spot.  Then, after she
ate, she ran and played and explored.  At first we thought we didn't have
room to keep another animal, but by the time the Humane Society opened again
two days later, we wouldn't have given her up for anything.
 
So after the weekend was over, we made an appointment with our vet, and as
we were walking in to the clinic I said, "We're going to have to call her
something."  My husband said, "Well, what would be a nice name?" I said,
"I've always thought that if we were to have children the name Meagan would
be nice." [Children aren't high on our wish list].  So Meagan she became,
although we rarely called her that--more often Roo, Sweet Pea, Sweetlet, or
just plain Baby.
 
The vet said many ferrets had been dumped that weekend--he and his colleagues
across the city had been seeing them all day.  She was just the right age to
need spaying and descenting, so maybe some untrained person mating them?
 
She was the most beautiful ferret ever, we think.  She was 1 1/2 pounds, a
sable.  Sometimes I would cuddle her and say, "You'll never be cold or
scared or hungry or thirsty again." She lived for nearly 8 years and was
very healthy until she turned 7, at which time she developed insulinoma.  It
was manageable for a while, but then it gradually worsened, and one day she
went into a coma and died.  We couldn't talk about her without crying for
nearly two months.  Then I got on the internet in January, discovered the
FML, and was helped *so much* by all the stories I read here.  Thanks to
everyone on this list for sending in wonderful stories and advice, and
thanks a million times to BIG for all his work.
 
In July we were finally healed enough to be able to welcome Sam into our
lives, and then in September Sally came.  (I posted about them the other
day.)  I'd post more about Meagan, too, but this is already too long.  But
I'm glad I could tell you all about her.
 
Amy and Alan
Sam and Sally (ferts); Zipper and Kenji (dogs); Tom, Ben, Anna (cats)
R.I.P. Meagan
in Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada
[Posted in FML issue 2151]