Linus, our 6 year old Champagne colored male ferret (his hair was mostly white as an oldie, and sparse, as he lost his coat due to adrenal which we are trying to get under control) passed away this afternoon around 1:30ish, after a short but tireless fight with mega-esophagus. Our 'Big Fat Linus' who has always been the fattest of them all and loved his kibble, treats, and especially his baby food 'gravy' twice a day. It was so sad to see him not be able to keep anything down for the last 7-10 days. We tried so hard to save him, we took him to every vet we could think of and even a specialist in NYC who has written textbooks about ferrets! We did so many tests on him before we realized this was a true, rare case of megaesophagus. Hopefully the necroscopy tomorrow will help ferrets in the future with this horrible, ugly condition. Linus was a people lover and a bit of nervous-nelly, would follow us all around begging to be picked up and petted, especially on his forehead. You could tell he was comfortable by when he would do a little shake and really settle down, he especially loved sleeping on his mother's tummy or around her neck. No one could ever soothe him as much in these last days as his dad though. Linus would be met by Franklin at the bridge, a black and white panda ferret who died in October of 2007 after a battle with kidney failure. His bonded pal, Barry, is running all over the house looking for him even after he got a chance to smell him after he was gone. He will try to make do with the other ferrets I'm sure. Linus might be thankful that Barry is no longer.ahem.trying to mate with him.(we are trying to get that under control). I hope he has a full coat now, all he can eat, and someone to hold him and pet him until we hopefully meet again one day. Thank you. Cheryl Langfeld & John Stashkevetch [Posted in FML 6260]