The Christmas Giving Trees are wonderful ways to get essentials to ferrets who might not be getting the toys, new blankets, treats, etc that most people take for granted as they give them to their 'children'. Those ferrets are usually safe and snuggly in a happy home and have been that way for a big portion of their lives. The ferrets on the Trees however tend to be the 'orphans' of this world. Most of them without a permanent home, making a stop, or staying, at a shelter, many of them counting off the days they have left before that illness they are struggling with takes their lives. While shelter Moms and workers the world over do their absolute best to make their house 'home' to these People, a shelter, even one couched in love, is still a shelter and most can't afford the luxuries many pet owners lavish upon their loved ones without a second thought. The Giving Trees help fill that void. As a shelter Mom, I know I look forward to each and every gift and appreciate each one, almost as much as the ferrets look forward to ripping open that box! Thank all of you! Perhaps that is why I find what happened today so distressing. One of my kids was adopted by a Santa but a gift never came. I double checked with Santa to make sure it had not been lost or stolen or even held up in the Christmas rush of mail. It had not. My kids are very good to share for the most part, but this particular Furperson was abandon at the local dog pound a year ago. As far as I know he never has never had anything all his own. Even haboured here, he never laid claim to anything as his, was always willing and going out of the way to share. He was a kind and gentle soul. The Thursday before Christmas he became very ill. A trip to the vet confirmed what I feared, a very aggressive cancer, prognosis; maybe won't even last until Christmas. But he did. He bounced back, enjoyed the Holiday, had fun helping the other Santa adopted ferrets open their boxes, enjoyed tearing up the wrapping paper and stealing bows. And all the while I was hoping he'd hold on until his package comes......some thing that can be his and his alone, some thing maybe he can take with him when he goes. I knew it would be soon. I had to put him to sleep tonight. As the doctor predicted when the time came it came fast and would have been painful. Thank all the stars and good hearts of the world because she had sent me home with copious amounts of pain meds for him, just in case. When the pain started tonight, I stopped it, and then I made that last trip to the clinic with him. Now I know he had no clue a gift of his own had been promised, and generous soul that he was, probably would have felt no ire that it never came. But I know and am heartbroken for him. How nice to have been buried in his very own bankie with a new toy. Please, if you promise something to a special child, two or four legged, see that they get it. And if you are one of the very many who kept that promise, know it touched more than the one you sent it to. To all of my Santas over the years, you've done much more than just touch one heart. I can't thank you enough. Brenda, Momma to the FurpeopleWeyr http://pages.prodigy.net/furpeopleweyr/index.html [Posted in FML issue 4742]