Just a note:  we're going to take Rael into the vet's tomorrow to be put to
sleep.  About six weeks ago, she suddenly developed a very large growth at
one of the neck lymph nodes, and she's deteriorated pretty rapidly.  We knew
we'd have to make some judgment as to when she was suffering more discomfort
than she was still interested in the world.  This morning, she was having
some discomfort moving, but was still interested in climbing in my lap,
sniffing at my and our daughter's fingers.  But she wasn't interested at all
in Nutrical or her chow.
 
We put her and her sister in their cage and moved it to the air-conditioned
room of the house while we were out in the afternoon.  When we came back,
Rael had lost control of her back legs and was uninterested in water or ice.
She's pushed herself into her litter area, but she can't stand up and has
soiled herself with whatever little is coming out.  I managed to get 3/4
tsp. of water into her with a syringe, but it's pretty clear that she's
dehydrating as well as uninterested in food.  That's an awful way to go,
especially with this heat wave, so we'll take her in tomorrow morning.
We're not sure how Kathryn (our 3 y.o. daughter) will handle the fact that
she didn't die at home; she knows Rael's dying, and is trying to work that
fact out.
 
Rael has lived almost 7 years, all of it with one of her litter-mates, and
most of it with no apparent health problems.  Now to make sure to spend lots
and lots of time with her sister.
 
Different issue:
 
>From:    "Paula E. Smith" <[log in to unmask]>
>Subject: Corn starch packing material
 
>Regarding the dissolvable corn-starch packing peanuts: ...  (At work we
>mostly stuck them together and called it sculpture, or moistened the end
>and threw them at each other (they stick to you, your clothes, the
>ceiling).
 
If I recall correctly, corn starch is also the material one makes ooblek out
of.  (Ooblek, for those who don't know, is one of those strange colloidal
substances that is a liquid unless put under force.  If you are unlucky
enough to step into a tub of it, you sink into it, but if you try to jerk
out of it suddenly, it firms up, making movement impossible.)  I could see
ooblek as a test of ferret fitness:  can a ferret get across a basin of it
without sinking?  (Hop, hop, hop, and it's a jiggling solid.)
 
(This is NOT serious -- I don't think it would be a good idea at all.  But
it's pleasant to think about as a fantasy, like a dozen ferrets at an
elegant banquet table, complete with tablecloth draping to the floor.)
___________
Sherman Dorn
Vanderbilt University
[log in to unmask]
[Posted in FML issue 1271]