Well, as you all know I posted about Patches passing away last night. As odd as this may sound, I just would now like to share some very humorous moments that happened while burying my baby. No, there is nothing humorous about burying your beloved ferret, and he was just that...beloved. But my Slinky made the day much more tolerable, and left me laughing in the end. Just to show you that ferrets are the best medicine for a broken heart. Slinky was Patches' cage mate. Slinky hates all ferrets, but for whatever reason, he just liked Patches. So they were caged together, but Slinky is not the best ferret for tact....he used to walk right over top of Patches, even when he was sick. He'd push Patches out of the food dish, and when I was feeding raisins through the bars of the cage, Slinky would rush in and take Patches' raisins. That's just the tactless ferret that Slinky is. Well, here's the events that occurred while trying to dig a grave for Patches and lay him to his final resting place... Well, first of all, I brought raisins to sprinkle in Patches' grave. I figured that was the best thing to give him for eternity. Of course, Slinky could smell them, so he wanted them. Well, he's trained that if he wants a raisin, he has to beg for it, up on his hind legs. So the little stinker followed me all around the yard, every time I stopped he would stand up on his little hind legs and beg...but the yard isn't flat like the carpet at home, so he kept falling over backwards, it was just so funny. Up he'd stand, then PLOP, right on his back... Even my mother got a real kick out of that. Anyway, so then, I started to dig the grave. Of course, Slinky couldn't keep the moment somber or serene....IN he hops, right into the grave, and sticks his nose into the loose dirt and starts tunnelling and digging himself. I'm saying to him, what, you trying to help bury him? You in a hurry? Okay, so then he gets out and lets me dig some more (with a few more hops into the grave, he was so filthy with dirt when we were all done...) So then I put Patches' body (wrapped in a bathrobe and then a bag around it) into the ground. I thought that maybe I should let Slinky say goodbye, so I let him jump into the grave again. Of course, what does he do but walk all over Patches one last time, and tried to steal the raisins that I'd sprinkled over the grave! Just like he did to him in life. THEN...he grabbed the knot in the bag that Patches was in, and tried to drag the bag out of the grave!!! I was appalled, aghast, mortified....I grabbed him, put him out of the grave, and said that he was awful....(but still couldn't help but giggle a bit). So I left him on the side of the grave while I filled it with fresh dirt and said goodbye. When I had the mound of dirt nicely on the grave, Slinky walked onto it to say goodbye, and in that very touching moment, Slinky raised his tail and pooped, right on top of the grave!!! I just stood and stared. I just don't know what to make of that, was he trying to say that that's what he thought of Patches? Or was he saying that he was mad at him for leaving? Personally, I like to think that he was just trying to add his mark to the grave, after all he couldn't really pick flowers to place atop the grave... :-) So we picked flowers, I placed them on the grave then sprinkled flower petals around the grave. We got a camera to take a picture of it, and we put Slinky on top so he could be in it too. Wouldn't you belive it, after pooping on the grave, he then peed on it, too!!!! I swear it is true, and I have a picture of him doing it as proof. Well, to some this may all sound quite horrid, but actually it was perfect. I wouldn't have expected Slinky to handle the day any differently. We were laughing, rather than crying, and I know that Patches would have wanted it that way. On that note, I have to say that the strangest feeling has come over me. Last night, all I could do was cry...I encouraged Patches to go to the Rainbow Bridge during his last hour, because I knew it was time, but it still hurt, and I know he was scared and sad. But I wrote yesterday about how after I explained to him what death was, and what he'd find at the Bridge, he went shortly thereafter...well all day today, rather than feeling sorrow and grief, all I could feel was this unexplainable feeling of calm and almost happiness, and I swear to you all, Patches gave that feeling to me. I swear that he is up there and he is sooooo happy, and he's trying to tell me that. I can't really put this into words, he was such a wonderful, special, beautiful ferret, I thought I'd be crying for weeks--I did with Lilly and Whiskey--but this time, I just *know* he's happy. There MUST be a Rainbow Bridge, because I know that he is finally happy after all these past months of illness and surgery...I can just *feel* it... Thank You Very Much for all of the cards and words of sympathy that you all sent yesterday and today. I don't know what I would do without my FML family to understand and go through this with. Bless each and every one of you. Kymberlie Becker Barone Director, Pennsylvania Ferret Rescue Association "Forget Puppy Love...There's nothing Greater than Ferret Love!" TM http://home.sprynet.com/sprynet/ferretlady [Posted in FML issue 2087]