My heart is again breaking as I have had to witness two more shelter kids go the Bridge. BJ, a 5 yr old naked girl is gone today only 5 days after surgery. she was doing so well in the sick room eating and drinking on her own. she was even starting to show signs of hair growing back already. At 11am this morning, she went into distress and 5 minutes later was gone. I will have her sent in for a necropsy tommorrow. Kodo was our brave little paraplegic who someone kicked and paralyzed. He used to run around on a roller skate I modified with my dremel tool. He will leave his mark on many folks heart as he was seen on channel 9 here in Denver and will also be seen on Animal Planet soon running around on his skate and enjoying life. I suspect heart failure. We gave him six months more of life than he would have had if he went to a vet and didn't have us to be in his life A necropsy will show the real cause. Some of you out there don't realize how taxing on your body and soul shelter work can be. Please support your local shelter. A donation of time, supplies, cash, or even a kind word for the hard work they ALL do is appreciated. Tonite as I write this, I am crying for the loss of my shelter kids who struggled so valiantly to stay here on earth and suffer with us through this misery we are all subjected to. I am happy they are in a better place and look forward to the day when I can join them. By my side is a ferret who I don't even know... he is siezing and crying in pain. I have administered phenobarbitol to stop the seizing and have him on an IV of Ringers. he should calm down in a few minutes. It is sad to watch some of the things that happens to these little guys, and I am happy when we save them. Everyone here at the shelter puts out so much to save these ferrets and as now, we get down on ourselves for this and that when we lose one. BY THE WAY, I ONLY WORK ON FERRETS THAT BELONG TO THE SHELTER!! IF YOU BRING YOUR FERRET TO ME AND EXPECT ME TO SAVE IT BECAUSE YOU CAN'T AFFORD TO, BE READY TO SURRENDER YOUR FERRET AND NOT GET IT BACK.!!! IF YOU CAN'T AFFORD TO PAY YOUR VET BILL, YOU CAN'T AFFORD TO OWN A FERRET. We will spend whatever it takes to save any ferret as long as we can recognize that after medical care, it will see an improvement in its life. If the vet does not see a chance of recovery and I agree with his prognosis, I let the vet handle it appropriately. If I disagree with my vet, and I do many times, I will bring the ferret back to the shelter where we will spend countless hours around the clock saving the ferret. We have two here now that were supposed to die a month ago. Both are recovering and gaining weight. Both will need months of PT to regain the use of their limbs. I want to challenge all who own ferrets to consider the situation their ferret is in and if that ferret was a brother, sister, mother or father human, to what extremes would you go to save their lives if they were sick. Todays society says it's ok to put an animal out of its misery if it is suffering, but not ok to do it to humans. If suffering were the criteria for ending a living beings life, then I too would be dead today. Anyone who has never had your chest cracked open and had heart surgery better know now that you will suffer and feel lots of pain. Sure, they can give you drugs to alleviate some of the pain, but they would have to give you fatal doses to totally get rid of the pain. My point, life is hard sometimes for us and our pets. Euthanasia is not the answer in some of the cases I read about in this forum. Life is precious and every minute of joy a ferret can give you is worth the time and money you should spend to get them well and back on their feet. They may not ever be the same, but honestly, neither will I. Yet I will continue to save as many ferrets as I can, educate as many people as I can, and help wherever I can to bring information and support to the ferret lovers of the world. Your ferret may not be able to tell you that they want to live, but they do. Give them the chance. Hugs to all, Ferretguy [Posted in FML issue 3209]