I've been behind in my FMLs a lot, and to all who have lost their beloved
fur kids, my sincere condolences.  It seem s like all this year I've
been able to post are my losses, and here I am again, with three more
tributes.  One of these days I'll be able to send something different.
 
Elrond came to us not quite 2 years ago.  Dee Gage and I did a pet fair
in a local town near here, and she'd brought Elrond and his bonded mate,
Haldir.  These two boys instantly bonded with my Muggles, and there was
no way they could leave!  Their names weren't, when they came here,
Elrond and Haldir, but that's who they became.  They'd have a blast,
running up and down the hall, chasing all the others.  Elrond looks a
lot like my Samwise, and I'd really have to study their faces to tell
them apart.  In August we noticed that Elrond was losing weight, and I
started looking for adrenal signs.  I didn't see any, and kept telling
him to hang on, that I'd be getting his surgery by the end of the year.
The week of the 20th, when I lost the 4, I noticed Elrond seemed much
thinner.  I asked Larry what he thought, and he said he'd noticed it
also.  I kept a close on eye him, and the night of the 27th, when I was
going to school, I made sure Larry checked on him.  He told me when I got
home Elrond seemed better, so I didn't check him.  The next day, Friday,
9/28, I went to his cage and he was staggering, all his weight seemed
gone.  I knew then we were dealing with some form of a cancer.  I
immediately calledmy vet and they waited for Elrond and me to get there.
All the way there I kept talking to him, telling him of the Bridge, how
nice it would be, how sorry I was that I couldn't save him.  Telling him
it was just too soon after losing the 4 to have him leave me, but I knew
he couldn't hold on.  And so my vet gave him the shot to help him to the
Bridge, to ease him from all suffering.  I know that Haldir misses him,
and I tell himit's all right, they'll see each other again, but not for
a long time.
 
Genie, ah, Genie, Jeanetta Ferretteta.  She is the last of the original
Crew of Merry Mayhem.  All the others here are still the Crew, and Conan
is close to still being one of the original, but she is the last.  We
found her and her sister, Scully, in the same pet/feed store that Kit
came from.  Genie was a champagne, Scully a silver.  Genie was always my
engineer, my little builder.  I always said she had a small hard hat and
a tool belt, because you could see her stand in front of something, just
literally measuring it, and up she'd go!  She had a habit of licking you,
and then suddenly attacking your hand or arm.  I've lots of little white
scars on my arms from her.  We lost Scully 3/11/03-she didn't wake up
from her adrenal surgery.  Genie changed after Scully left, some of the
fire went out of her.  She quit being as adventurous as she had been in
the past.  I'd hold her, talk to her, love her, and noticed that she
even quit biting my arm.  Early this summer she had her first insulinoma
attack, and immediately I put her onto pediapred.  She'd been doing well,
and then suddenly another one, and up went the pred again.  I talked to
the vet, and told him how much she was getting for her weight, and we
both knew that much more and it would be more than she'd be able to
tolerate.  Friday night I was putting her group up, and couldn't find
her.  Suddenly, there she was coming out from under the covers, rigid,
eyes staring, foaming.  She was in something like an insulinomic seizure,
and I knew that it was her time.  And so tomorrow, 11/8/04, she'll get
to meet up with all her friends and her mate, Scully.  And with her goes
such a huge piece of my heart.
 
Shadow came to us around 8 months ago.  He and Ghost had come out of New
Jersey, from some sort of situation I don't know much about.  Shadow was
a dark sable, almost a hooded boy with a crooked tail right at the base.
He wasn't, we believe, a Marshall's Ferret.  When we got him, via Julie
Fossa, she was worried that he had a broken tail, but the x-ray from the
vet showed no break, so it had to just be a defect.  Shadow was so shy,
so frightened of other ferrets.  He'd be out walking and Ceasar would
charge at him.  You could hear Shadow scream all over the house, and
I'd always run to his rescue.  He'd tuck his little head into my arm, as
if to say, I'm glad you're here.  Ghost would also run to his defense.
His weight has always gone up and down, and we've watched that.  But in
the last few weeks we've noticed that the weight has been going away,
something terrible.  I took him to the vet last week, and after a
thorough exam the vet thought perhaps stress, since Sunner seems to
always be chasing him.  I'd also noticed that he was grinding his teeth
last Sunday.  And so I put him on Carafate, started feeding him extremely
soft food.  On Thursday night I heard his stomach gurgling, making noise
he'd never made.  I called the vet on Friday, and he said not to worry,
but I started thinking megaesophagus.  I had to go to Ohio on Saturday
to get Conan his Lupron shot, and called Julie, asking her to take a
look.  We got him there and she was as stunned as I have been about his
weight.  I told her all I was doing, and we worked out with her vet
there amoxicillyn and biaxin for possible helicobacter, along with the
carafate.  While we were there she fed him, and he wandered around.  I
found him, and as I pickedhim up, that terrible gurgling started again.
I got her to him, and she looked as devastated as I felt-we both knew it
was mega-e.  I brought him home and after I'd put him in his cage I was
across the room when it started again, and I knew.  I've never had one
with mega-e, but know many who have had, and have watched Julie.  I
called her, and we talked.  IO know that I could work with him, try to
get him built up, and maybe we'd have 2 weeks, maybe 2 months, maybe
more.  But looking at him, his weight slipping by the hour, I knew I
couldn't do that to him.  So all weekend I've fed him with him on his
hind legs, gently eye droppering his food to him, allowing him time to
swallow, listening to the growing gurgle.  At times in his cage I found
foul smelling piles, as though his food had come back up with acid, or
where his poops had come outjust as they enetered him.  And so, along
with Genie, I've been telling Shadow all about the Bridge, telling him
that on Monday he'd be at the Bridge, no longer ill, able to eat what he
wants.  And he, also, will make the trip with me on Monday, and another
piece of my heart leaves.
 
Sandee, Muldoone, and SaraFerret-please watch out for Shadow and Genie.
I know that Elrond has been there for almost 2 months, and is having a
blast, but these two will need to meet their friends.  Shadow will be a
bit shy, as he only knows a few that are there now.  Please make sure
Dakota meets him, for they were cage mates.  And for Genie, well, sit
back, because the ruckus will begin when she gets there, and it may not
stop for a week.  Please let Elrond know I just had a hard time writing
his tribute, which is why it's so late.  Let Genie and Shadow know I had
to do theirs before they left, and it has taken so long to write, because
I can't quit crying.  Please tell them how sorry I am, and how very much
I'll miss them.
 
Rebecca and the Crew of Merry Mayhem
"Do not meddle in the affairs of dragons, for thou art crunchy, and taste
 good with ketchup"
"Support bacteria, it's the only culture some people have"
[Posted in FML issue 4690]