As some of you may have read in one of my earlier posts, I am a foster mom
to a lovable ferret named Squeegie, who was thought to have had adrenal
problems but turned out to be filled with tumors instead.  He was given a
time frame of about a week left to live.  By choosing not to euthanize him
I have received the best present this Christmas could offer.  It has been
two and a half months since I stood by his side and cried when the vet told
me just how serious his condition was.  It's been two and half months of
joy since then and God could not have given me anything in this world to
top the gift of his life with us.
 
Squeegie continues to wreak havoc upon all the other ferrets as well as
all the cats.  He still loves to come up onto the bed at night and give us
wet sloppy ear kisses that he must give us before he beds down each night.
He is the joy of everyone who comes into our home and welcomes each and
everyone with the same sloppy ear kisses that he must give them.
 
He is my little light and he continues to shine his brightest.  His love
for us has filled our hearts to near bursting.  The words I write here give
no justice to the joy he has given us as he has truly given us the best
present we could have ever hoped for.
 
Along with Squeegie, we are fostering a wonderful little girl we call
Thalia (tha lee ah) who we named after the greek muse of comedy as she
surely makes us laugh.  Thalia is a severe biter and her progress is slow.
But her present to us comes to us a little everyday - one day a bite that
doesn't break the skin, one day a lick to the cheek, one day a raisin taken
carefully from the hand, and day after day the ability to pick her up
without the use of gloves and pet and stroke her.  She is giving us her
gift of trust and we could not ask for more from such a wonderful little
girl as her.
 
And with the fosters we have a new feisty newcomer named Cherokee (sure row
key) who is just a baby at 15 weeks old.  Her energy and enthusiasm gives
us her gift of laughter.  She is a bullet in the shape of a ferret and
cannot believe just how fast she can run.  I am positive that she is
breaking land speed records but for the time being I have to be happy with
keeping that knowledge to myself.  She has won us over and although she is
an excited biter, I have yet to have blood drawn from me as I have with
Thalia, who by the way, has turned into her best friend.
 
My own group of Taero, Mushu and Ping have given us the gifts of their
energies in their antics.  They are forever teaching me that I can't leave
things about for too long.  Chook has given me his precious gift of life
for it was a year ago that he stopped eating.  Now he is a solid, but
healthy boy who is at a great weight.  His mysterious ailment gone from
us, leaves us with hope that we will have him around a long, long time.
 
So now we come to my little Bear, who fights for her life as I write this.
My little sweetheart who last year lost her beloved companion Tinder, has
come down with a mysterious illness of her own.  She too, has stopped
eating and has lost enough weight to make her nothing but a furry skeleton.
But for her small size, even a small amount of weight loss makes her look
like skin and bones.  We have been fighting to keep her alive and have an
exhaustive two hour schedule by which she gets a variety of medications and
feedings.  I also must give her fluid injections under the skin.  She has
been sick for about a week and we are starting to see her come around.  We
spotted her drinking on her own for the first time last night.  That was
a gift unto itself.  Her poops which had become green and seedy, are now
starting to look more oatmealy.  (I think I even see a coil starting to
appear!)  She continues to eat her chicken gravy even though we have to
give it to her off our fingers.  She fights us but we know that we cannot
give up on her which is our gift to her.  Her gift to us will be her life.
And I will ever so rejoice when we finally beat this thing.
 
I always knew that it would be these wonderful little creatures who would
teach me the real meaning of Christmas.  To one and all, I wish health,
happiness, and longevity.  As I fight for my little girl, I will be
fighting along side all the other families who will be doing their all to
see that they don't lose their loved ones.  For those whose battles are
over, the night sky is filled with their gifts of lives past, echoing their
love and leaving their loved ones on an earthly plane.  Their lights will
remain with us forever and always.
 
Betty and Her Blur O'Fur and Fosters
[Posted in FML issue 2910]