Hi everyone!
 
To all of you who sent notes expressing concern about Nip, my ferret
believed to have crawled out of a window Friday before last, thank you!  She
has been found, and it's a miracle!  On Tuesday, two girls that live
upstairs in my apartment came running to get me, saying they thought they
heard Nip scratching from inside of a wall in our storage closet.  I didn't
believe it could be true: it had been 11 days and I had begun to accept the
fact that I would never see her fuzzy face again.  But I went upstairs, and
sure enough, I could hear frantic scratching coming from inside one of the
wall panels.  "Hold on, Nip, we're coming!" shouted one of the girls, taking
a hammer and making a hole in the wall.  And as we held our breaths, her
sweet and extremely dirty face poked out.  I just couldn't believe she was
still alive.  I had tears of joy streaming down my face.  I picked her up
and she weighed next to nothing.  The first thing she did was drink nearly a
whole dish of water.  She has been to the vet and seems to be fine, although
she only weighs about a third of a pound.  She is alert, curious, and
stubborn as ever.
 
The sad part of the story is about her sister Spike, our 9 month old albino.
After Nip initially disappeared, we noticed that Spike was acting very
depressed and sluggish.  She had no interest in playing, or even in leaving
the carrier that she and Nip usually sleep in.  We figured that she was just
missing Nip, and tried to pay special attention to Spike: taking her
everywhere with us, bathing her in the shower while we showered, giving her
extra Linatone.  But she just got worse and worse.  We didn't think she was
really sick, because she was still eating and using the bathroom and wasn't
sneezing or coughing, although her breath seemed funny.  Just to rule out
illness, we took her to the veterinary hospital on Saturday night.  The vet
had only held her for a few seconds when he said, "I don't know what is
wrong with her, but I can tell you that this little ferret's in a lot of
trouble." So she went to stay in the hospital, to be put on antibiotics and
lots of fluids.  She did not get any better and without warning died on
Monday morning in her sleep.
 
We were very depressed because at that point we had no ferrets.  We hadn't
seen Nip in 9 days and were preparing to have a memorial service for both
Nip and Spike when Nip showed up on Tuesday morning, emerging from the wall!
So you can imagine how joyous I was!
 
The vet said that Spike died from lymphatic cancer which settled around her
lungs and heart, making it hard for her to breathe.  What actually killed
her was that her spleen and liver had enlarged to about 8 times their normal
size and she hemorrhaged while sleeping.  So she probably never knew what
happened.  The vet said he had never seen cancer like that, especially in
such a young, active ferret.  It was very puzzling.  Anyway, we had a
funeral for Spike, burying her with all of her favorite toys and trinkets.
And we hope to get a new sister for Nip very soon, so that she will not be
too lonely.
 
So even while we grieve, there is a lot to be thankful for.  And it's been
quite a week for ferrets.  Nip says hello, and I am sure that Spike is now
waiting for us at the Rainbow Bridge.
 
-Eva
[Posted in FML issue 1522]