I know all of the scientific reasons why the moon was so bright on the Solstice the other night, but I would like to think that it was made a little bit brighter so that a sweet little sable girl could find her way to the Rainbow bridge. She was so small, and her eyes barely open, she needed all the light she could to find her way. Our club contact for the Triangle Ferret Lovers, here in the triangle area of North Carolina, received a call just after the dinner hour from a man who had bought a supposedly five and a half week old kit from a pet store in Burlington, NC. The kit wasn't eating, and he was concerned for it, and was hoping we could help get it to eat and get it healthy in time for him to give it to his girlfriend for Christmas. This was probably the fastest turn around for a ferret to come to the club in need of help, they had supposedly only bought the little girl just that afternoon. I was called as a possible foster mom for the baby for a couple of days, and I let our contact know that if she needed any help that I was only a phone call away. The club contact, Shari, went to an arranged place and picked up the sweet little girl (they were unsure of the sex, until she confirmed it) who was so small that she easily curled up in Shari's palm. The little thing was obviously not well, and Shari brought her home and tried to get liquids and chicken gravy into her, the baby was pretty non-responsive. While consulting with a vet and friend on the phone about what Shari could do for the kit, it let out a gasp, shuddered and died..right there in her palm. Having only lost one of her beloved girls to a long battle with lympho and insulinoma recently, this was even more devastating. I got the call minutes after the kit had passed, and then I called our local animal emergency clinic to see if they could keep her little body for us while we contacted the owners and tried to figure out what to do as it was nearly midnight. They were very helpful and understanding and said they could most certainly keep her for us. I then went over to Shari's so I could drive her and the poor baby to the vet office. The unnamed little girl had only been gone for about fifteen minutes, but her body was very cold and hard, even curled up in my hand. You could see that her nose was completely encrusted inside and filled with what looked to me like sawdust. She was so very tiny, but not emaciated, I don't think it was starvation that claimed her. She didn't have any prolapse as pet store kits often do. I have a sinking feeling that it was due to being in shavings at the pet store or something similar that contributed to her death, or caused it altogether. For two very devoted and loving fuzzy moms who have both lost dear babies in the past weeks, this was a very hard trip to take. It was also harder to hear that the people weren't interested in what happened to the baby now that she was gone, although they were sorry to hear it, so now we have to decide what is to become of her. We also want desperately to get the breeder guarantee from the family (if they have one) to see if they truly had only had her for several hours, and how old she was supposed to be. From the tattoo in her ear, she appears to be a Marshall Farms ferret. The next step is to locate the pet store to find out if they have other ferrets, where they came from, and what conditions they are living in. We took extensive precautions and changed our clothes and washed ourselves before being in contact with any other fuzzies, you never can be too careful. I'm asking for any information, if anyone has it, about what death from cedar toxicity looks like. If in fact that is what this is, how could the ferret have gone from being attractive enough to want to buy at a pet store, to being a deaths door with breathing trouble in a matter of hours, especially when her little nose was so clogged? Why didn't the pet store see this? Why didn't the owners? I couldn't tell if the eyes were crusted, but the nose certainly was, I know this is one of the signs of distemper, could that have been the cause? What does death from canine distemper look like? Hopefully we'll know more in the coming days although with the holidays, that will be difficult I'm sure. Any input anyone could give would be helpful. Sandee, if you see a very tiny girl wandering around the bridge, please take good care of her- she didn't live long enough to even learn what it's like to be a ferret. Sadly, Robynn McCarthy [Posted in FML issue 2907]