Lazy-Ferret
Well-known member
- Joined
- Jun 14, 2012
- Messages
- 5,217
We have been having a bit of a hard time of it here.
We have finally sorted out Suz's Dad's house, and got it sold, which was very emotional for Suz, as mentioned before, not helped by other members of the family, who not only did very little to help, but also kicked up a ruckus as well. Still, thats over now.
On top of all this, while we were clearing the house, one of our Ferrets was having real problems eating food, and when taken to the vets was diagnosed with very aggressive Bone cancer, and given just 3 days to live. We were told he was not in pain, but if he did not pass away over the weekend, then we would probably need to bring him to be PTS on the following Monday.
Because all our ferrets have been rescues, we have never actually had a baby ferret, until a few years ago, when we were asked by the rescue to collect some ferrets from a local place, only to discover one of the ferrets had given birth 3 days previously, and had not been fed for nearly a week. Having safely moved them to our house, it was decided not to take them to the rescue, as this might really upset the mother, and cause her to kill the kits, so we ended up bringing them up. When the time came to re-home them, one kept not being chosen, and as we had been told not to name them, as we would become attached, we started calling him "Reject", as he was always the rejected one... well, that of course meant even though we had not actually named him, he had a name, and we did indeed become attached to him, so he ended up staying, and lived out his whole life coming to the name "Reject".
I make a special convalescent soup for the ferrets, which I make in a large batch, freeze, and then in order to keep the ferrets used to it's taste, give them a small bowl of it each night. As Reject could still drink, we started feeding him this special soup, which he loved, and ended up taking him with us when we went places, as we had to make sure he was fed regularly with it. He literally travelled everywhere, sitting in the car, on Suz's lap, looking out the window, and sometimes nearly causing an accident when the car next to us in traffic suddenly spotted him looking at them. He helped us finish Suz's dad's house, enjoying checking all the work we did. As time went on, he lost the use of his back legs, but could still get up and down stairs, using his front legs to pull himself where ever he wanted to go.
As time went on, we kept an eye on him, wondering if today would be the day we would have to make the decision to have him PTS, but he would always rally and prove to us, he had a zest for life. Finally, after nearly an extra 6 months of life, he decided that he was ready, and after giving us a really lovely cuddle in the evening, passed away in his sleep that night.
After spending literally 24 hours a day with him, this hit us very hard, but there was consolation in knowing that he had truly had the best life a ferret could ask a human to give him, and died with dignity.
Wow, we miss him...
Luckily, we have 11 other ferrets who always do their best to take our minds off reality, and they did their best. Now, all 11 are very special, but even though I know you shouldn't, we can't help but find that sometimes one is really extra special. In our case, this was a little ferret called Poppet, she was perfect. She gave us cuddles and kisses when we were sad, and she did clowny things to make us laugh. She was always there, day and night, checking what we were up to. She was so tiny, she gave us heart failure a few times managing to get through gaps other ferrets could only dream about, and in 18 years of having ferrets, she is the only ferret that found a way to get up onto one of the surfaces in the kitchen, and help herself to treats. She would come up and join us in bed, and when we took her out for a walk, anybody who met her, would fall in love with her...
A couple of weeks back, through a terrible accident, Suz accidentality killed her.... I won't go into details, but I will have nightmares for a very long time, and poor Suz's for even longer.... Suz's has been close to suicidal and to be honest, I really have been scared silly trying to help her come to terms with it, all the time trying to come to turns with it myself...
To make things worse, the group of ferrets she lived with are all missing her terribly, and the group dynamics have been messed up, with them hardly bothering to get up.
Today, I decided we needed to try and put the past behind a bit of a veil, and see if we can move forward, so we drove to Stonehenge, and met a lady selling some ferret kits.
We brought 2 home, and are in the process of integrating them with the sad group, to stir them up a bit. Keep your fingers crossed as ferrets can be hard to get to take on new friends.
Meet our two new babies, no names yet, and they don't know it yet, but they have some very big boots to fill...
This one is a little Black Eyed White, and she is a little dynamo, and very spunky, with a lot of attitude.
And this little one is a Sandy ferret, and she is as cute as a button.
Sorry for the long post, but as we are all friends here, I thought I should share why I have been as quiet as I have this past few months, and why we were not able to attend any of the meet ups.
We have finally sorted out Suz's Dad's house, and got it sold, which was very emotional for Suz, as mentioned before, not helped by other members of the family, who not only did very little to help, but also kicked up a ruckus as well. Still, thats over now.
On top of all this, while we were clearing the house, one of our Ferrets was having real problems eating food, and when taken to the vets was diagnosed with very aggressive Bone cancer, and given just 3 days to live. We were told he was not in pain, but if he did not pass away over the weekend, then we would probably need to bring him to be PTS on the following Monday.
Because all our ferrets have been rescues, we have never actually had a baby ferret, until a few years ago, when we were asked by the rescue to collect some ferrets from a local place, only to discover one of the ferrets had given birth 3 days previously, and had not been fed for nearly a week. Having safely moved them to our house, it was decided not to take them to the rescue, as this might really upset the mother, and cause her to kill the kits, so we ended up bringing them up. When the time came to re-home them, one kept not being chosen, and as we had been told not to name them, as we would become attached, we started calling him "Reject", as he was always the rejected one... well, that of course meant even though we had not actually named him, he had a name, and we did indeed become attached to him, so he ended up staying, and lived out his whole life coming to the name "Reject".
I make a special convalescent soup for the ferrets, which I make in a large batch, freeze, and then in order to keep the ferrets used to it's taste, give them a small bowl of it each night. As Reject could still drink, we started feeding him this special soup, which he loved, and ended up taking him with us when we went places, as we had to make sure he was fed regularly with it. He literally travelled everywhere, sitting in the car, on Suz's lap, looking out the window, and sometimes nearly causing an accident when the car next to us in traffic suddenly spotted him looking at them. He helped us finish Suz's dad's house, enjoying checking all the work we did. As time went on, he lost the use of his back legs, but could still get up and down stairs, using his front legs to pull himself where ever he wanted to go.
As time went on, we kept an eye on him, wondering if today would be the day we would have to make the decision to have him PTS, but he would always rally and prove to us, he had a zest for life. Finally, after nearly an extra 6 months of life, he decided that he was ready, and after giving us a really lovely cuddle in the evening, passed away in his sleep that night.
After spending literally 24 hours a day with him, this hit us very hard, but there was consolation in knowing that he had truly had the best life a ferret could ask a human to give him, and died with dignity.
Wow, we miss him...
Luckily, we have 11 other ferrets who always do their best to take our minds off reality, and they did their best. Now, all 11 are very special, but even though I know you shouldn't, we can't help but find that sometimes one is really extra special. In our case, this was a little ferret called Poppet, she was perfect. She gave us cuddles and kisses when we were sad, and she did clowny things to make us laugh. She was always there, day and night, checking what we were up to. She was so tiny, she gave us heart failure a few times managing to get through gaps other ferrets could only dream about, and in 18 years of having ferrets, she is the only ferret that found a way to get up onto one of the surfaces in the kitchen, and help herself to treats. She would come up and join us in bed, and when we took her out for a walk, anybody who met her, would fall in love with her...
A couple of weeks back, through a terrible accident, Suz accidentality killed her.... I won't go into details, but I will have nightmares for a very long time, and poor Suz's for even longer.... Suz's has been close to suicidal and to be honest, I really have been scared silly trying to help her come to terms with it, all the time trying to come to turns with it myself...
To make things worse, the group of ferrets she lived with are all missing her terribly, and the group dynamics have been messed up, with them hardly bothering to get up.
Today, I decided we needed to try and put the past behind a bit of a veil, and see if we can move forward, so we drove to Stonehenge, and met a lady selling some ferret kits.
We brought 2 home, and are in the process of integrating them with the sad group, to stir them up a bit. Keep your fingers crossed as ferrets can be hard to get to take on new friends.
Meet our two new babies, no names yet, and they don't know it yet, but they have some very big boots to fill...
This one is a little Black Eyed White, and she is a little dynamo, and very spunky, with a lot of attitude.
And this little one is a Sandy ferret, and she is as cute as a button.
Sorry for the long post, but as we are all friends here, I thought I should share why I have been as quiet as I have this past few months, and why we were not able to attend any of the meet ups.
