SaraFerret, Would you please met our foundling ferret Jasper at the Rainbow Bridge for us? Sunday morning (9-23-07) we got a phone call just before noon letting us know a ferret had been spotted running loose. Daddy Keith took of to meet the caller in hopes of catching the little boy we named Jasper. It took about 40 minutes to catch him and put him in a kennle and I met Keith on my way down to see how he made out. Jasper was having trouble walking so I put in an emergancy call to our vet and met him at the clinic. Jasper by this time was able to start using his hind legs and our vet examined him. We gave Jasper SQ fluids, a shot of Dex as it looked like he had been loose for about 2-3 days. Jasper had abrasions along his back side and a laceration across the top of his muzzle. When I got Jasper home I set up an isolation cage in my dining room and made up some soup to hand feed Jasper as he wouldn't eat on his own. I started him on meds and later that evening I gave Jasper a bath. Jasper was so good and well mannered through all of this. All's he wanted was to snuggle and be held. We don't know if Jasper was an escapee as no one has contacted us looking for him or a dump. Yesterday morning Keith hand fed Jasper before we went to work and left the extra soup in his cage in hopes he would eat by himself while we were gone for the day. When I got home from work I took Jasper out of his cage and noticed he was cool so I heated up some SQ fluids to help raise his body temp as it was only 96*. After about an hour I made up some fresh soup and tried to feed Jasper who wasn't interested. Later last night we could see jasper was having trouble breathing so we set up a humidifier with a breathing tube. Jasper died in my arms a few minutes later. We only had Jasper with us for 36 hours but he found a place in our hearts. So SaraFerret please look for a handsome well mannered Black Sable named Jasper. Please tell Jasper I'm sorry I failed him. Keith and I realy thought we could bring him through this and we couldn't. Let Jasper know that even though he was only with us for 36 hours, we fell in love with him and will never forget him. He will always remain in our hearts. thank you, Mommy Debi & Daddy Keith. [Posted in FML 5742]