Hey Ya'll,
 
Well, in case you are wondering at the rather volumnious output today (Bill,
feel free to space them out to another day), I am avoiding a paper in
Evolution of human sexuality.  I know what I am going to write it on (can
you believe that a current theory is that women only have orgasms because
men need them for reproduction!!??!!) AUCKK!
 
Anyway, thought with the talk on arthritis, I would introduce Pookmeister's
first boyfriend, Nicky Boy, a.k.a.  the walking tub o' lard.  hehe.
 
I purchased Nicky from a pet store, the fourth one he had been in.  He has
no tatoos, is a beautiful fluffy soft DEW boy.  Not a dark hair on him.
When I first saw him, he could do nothing but drag his hind end around.  The
pet store insisted it was from being kept in a small cage which caused
atrophy in the muscles.  I knew better.  I was also afraid he wouldn't get
the kind of owner he needed, so I made sure.
 
He went straight to my vet's in Houston.  X-rays showed that he probably had
a genetic defect in one of his lumbar vertebre, which I forget the term for.
It causes a triangularly shaped bone.  On top of that, it appeared that he
had an old injury which had calcified around this vertebre.  This caused
some nerve damage which limited his control of bladder, bowel and hind end.
My vet thought he had probably had something dropped on him at one point.
 
Nicky is a very special boy.  He is sweet as pie and will lick you all day
if you let him.  It took him over a month to make friends with Pookie, as
she isn't one to trust easily.  He would go up and clean her ears, she would
get mad and beat him up.  A few minutes later he would try again.  He
finally won her heart by attrition I think, she just flat decided it was
easier to be nice to him.  lol!!
 
Nicky improved somewhat while we lived in Houston.  After I moved to Mid Mo,
he improved more.  I think it is due to differing floor surfaces, here I
have carpet, there we had wood floors.  Also he has improved dramatically
since his faerie god-Noni developed a physical therapy program for him.  She
has a degree in sports med and p/t and has helped many, many paralyzed
fuzzies on this list.
 
I had wrongly assumed that I couldn't do anything about Nicky, because it
was skeletal.  I was flat out wrong.  Noni impressed upon me the need for
range of motion exercises, to keep the muscles working right.  When I first
started his p/t, Nicky couldn't bend at the waist very well.  And his hocks
were almost frozen immobile.  He cracked loudly the first time I worked with
him.  Like cracking your knuckles.
 
He gets around so much better now.  He can bend at the waist like a normal
ferret, motors much faster and has regained some limited control on his
bowel and bladder.  He can also now get into the shower by himself,
something he couldn't do before.
 
Sometimes he hurts from being stiff, so I work with him.  I am planning on
getting a reptile pad for him (great idea!).  And I have to constantly clean
up poopies from the middle of the floor.  And he gets his bottom half bathed
fairly regularly, once or twice a week.  Have to, to prevent urine scald on
him.  He will eliminate in his sleep, so he creates more laundry too.  He
snores so loudly he wakes me up, and sometimes cries in his sleep.
 
But he is my precious little Nicky Boy, always happy.  Always.  He has a
wonderful quality of life and I wouldn't give him up for the world.
 
Are you getting the idea that all of my mob is special to me? hehe.
 
When you do the things you do,
I can never, never, never let you go
When you feel the way you feel,
you can never, no never let it show.
 
R. Plant
[Posted in FML issue 2154]