[Moderator's note: Posted by Wolfy for Rebecca McFarlane. BIG] Bilbo came to us last January in the Minnesota rescue kids that we adopted. He was a little old guy already, and blind. We saw a bump on his tail, and we were watching it. The night April brought him, Eowyn, Arwen, and Storm to us, his name was originally Big Boy, but that was changed. Bilbo acclimated quickly, loved the tubes, but discovered this HUGE love of chicken gravy. He had been in a cage by himself, but was brought into a mixed group where he became the master and commander. He'd get out, and his best place to be was on the futon, under the blankets, and God help any cat that was up there. He'd route them out of his area so fast. You'd hear a cat yowl, see them flying, and he'd be standing there, this triumphant look on his face. The bump on the tip of his tail started to grow, and at night we'd hear him crying, whether in pain or nightmares I was not't sure, but I talked to my vet, and out he went. The vet thought it was a chordoma, and so removed it. I was supposed to keep the tip of his tail bandaged. Right. Ever try to nail jello to a tree? That's what keeping a bandage on his tail was like! Less than three weeks later it was back, huge, splitting open and bleeding. Bilbo's weight suddenly dropped, and the crying became more frequent. I took him out again, and this time we decided to 'dock' his tail. So Bilbo looked, as my daughter liked to say, like a little gopher. He quit crying, and his sleep became fantastic. I started school the beginning of January, plus working a lot of overtime, and so my husband has been helping out by taking care of the ferrets for me. I see them the most on the weekends now (out of the cages, I mean). Last Saturday I was exercising and playing with Bilbo's group, looked at him and almost fainted. No weight, a walking skeleton. I asked Larry when did this happen, and he said it was like a day before. The problem was he forgot to tell me (he suffers short-term memory). I picked Bilbo up to find a huge, hard tumor on the back left leg, and on the skin at the end of the penis two small tumors. I called the vet first thing Monday morning, and out Bilbo went. The vet thought a shot of depomedrazol(sp?) would stop it, and to watch him. I told Larry chicken gravy, every morning and I'd do it every evening to bring the weight up. Monday night he was walking. Tuesday night, he could barely walk, staggered. I called Larry at work and told him, Bilbo's not going to make it. So I sat that night and talked to Bilbo about the Bridge, about all the other members of the Crew of Merry Mayhem there, and I told him how badly I wanted him to stay, but I didn't want him to hurt anymore. Wednesday morning Larry called me-he'd gone to give Bilbo his gravy, and my little old man couldn't sit up. So I was getting off early to go to class, had our daughter bring him out, and we made that trip to the vet that I hate, but was necessary. I drove, talking to him all the way, barely able to see the road through the tears. They got us into a room right away, the vet came in and examined him. His mouth just fell open and he told me, it had already spread, that he could feel the tumors. So he prepared the shot and I told Bilbo again all about the bridge, that he'd be able to see, and he'd get his tail back, no more pain, no more cancers. H e laid his little head in my hands as the vet gave him the shot, and one paw went over one of my fingers. My daughter was there, and she just kept her hand on my shoulder while I talked to Bilbo, told him to run as fast as he could, and that I knew he was almost home. When he quit breathing, I told him, you're home now, you're safe. My vet was almost in tears, and held him, cuddling him. He's going to biopsy the huge tumor to check on what it was exactly. And so the little one who became Bilbo Baggins, who came from whatever bad situation, has gone to a ferret's Gray Haven-the Rainbow Bridge. Sandy and Sara-ferret, will you check on him for me? He came to the Bridge on Wednesday, February 4. He's cinnamon colored, and his eyes will be bright, looking everywhere, his tail long and furred. Storm, one of his mates from the same rescue who was a member of the Bridge will be there to meet him. Please make sure he's there, and that Spunky shares the gravy with him. Tell him how sorry I am that I couldn't keep this damned disease from him, that I couldn't save him. I miss his kisses, and then his ankle bites. Rebecca & the Crew of Merry Mayhem "Do not meddle in the affairs of dragons, for thou art crunchy, and taste good with ketchup" "Support bacteria, it's the only culture some people have" [via] Wolfy [Posted in FML issue 4416]