About 4 this morning, our beloved Chook gave his last breath on his daddy's chest... Chook, our little boy, finally succumbed to whatever it was that ailed him. Chook was our last ferret from what I refer to as Batch #2. You see, hubby and I have lived with ferrets for over 16 years... When I refer to batches, I refer to a series of adoptions that happened all within a short period of time... Chook was in the second batch, and was adopted from the local humane society with his buddy Taero. They had been abandoned and left with a bag of food and a big bowl of water for two weeks, while his owner skipped out on the rent, and apparently out of town. Chook is the only ferret that I have known to have a tattoo on his belly. When coming up with names for our new boys, we chose Taero becausa he-a tear-o around-o the room-o. He would drive us to dizziness with his endless chasing of a christmas ornament on a string. He loved it. Chook was named after the chook, chook, chook sound he made. For some reason his name has always been hard to pronounce although it is very easy as it rhymes with "look". Chook had been going through health problems for over a couple of years now... maybe even three. The blood tests all came back normal, and radiographs did not show anything. He would bloat, and lose weight, eat and then not eat... it was a continuous battle to keep him going. But we managed. He just wasn't ready to go yet... He was acting funny today... sleeping where he normally didn't, away from the old girls he usually sleeps with. He was coughing today... this was new. Hubby and I discussed taking him to the vet Friday... I got him his fuzzy sleeping bag, and dad went to sleep while mom finished work on the computer... A few hours later, James came downstairs with an awful look on his face... Chook was gone... We sat and cried together as we held him this last time... in a few hours Chook's body will be taken to the vet so that a necropsy can be performed... we need to get an idea of what was truly going on inside of him... Although we had been treating him for insulinoma, we knew more was going on that he just wasn't telling us... James did a lovely portrait of Chook last year... a beautiful tribute to our now spiritual boy. We are so thankful that we had him blessed, along with the old girls at the Blessing of the Animals service that was two Saturdays ago. The local humane society had a hand in it, and a friend let us know about it. We quickly decided that bringing 18 was far too many, so we decided on bringing only the oldsters... All four were blessed... we are so happy and grateful this happened before he went quietly today, and maybe that is part of the reason he went so peacefully... Chook, we love you honey... thank you for the extra time you gave us to be with you... Your light will forever shine in our hearts. love and hugs betty and james and their blur o'fur for the love of ferrets missing Chook As an update... Chook turned out to have a number of things wrong with him besides his insulinoma, including an enlarged heart (cardiomyopathy), an irregular shaped liver with a large, nasty, golf-ball sized tumor, growing off of it, and an enlarged right adrenal that was inoperable. Had we taken him in for an exploratory, chances are that he would not have survived, and if he had, we may have been forced to let him go on the table. I am glad to know that he is finally at peace... Time to run and play Shuffles... we shall meet again one day.... B [Posted in FML issue 3569]