Sep 082017
 

I’ve not posted at all this year…part of that has been forgetfulness, and part of it has been Millie being increasingly sick. Her weight crashed early this year, from her norm of 700g down to a mere 430g at the lowest. We went to the vet, and she got put on metronidazole. This helped for a time, bringing her stable weight back to 650g for a while.

Unfortunately, it didn’t last. Her weight crashed again, and we added prednisolone to the mix. She stabilized again for a time, only at 550g, but seemed happy. At least, happy when I wasn’t making her take the icky meds. So most of the day!

Earlier this week, a mere couple days in advance of her next vet visit for annual checkup and vaccines, her weight crashed again. And this morning, I woke up to give her the meds for the day, and she was all but gone. We rushed to the vet, with her wrapped in warm blankets to try and boost her body temperature, but there was nothing to be done but let her go. I’m really going to miss my little koalaferret.

Despite not posting pictures, I’ve still been taking them. And if she’s not been at her most photogenic this year, I still want to give her a fitting goodbye. So here’s Millie, everyone.

She loved her belly scratches.

She always wanted to go out and explore.

When we did go out, she sometimes got to stay at a fancy ferret hotel at my cousins’ place!

She loved, loved, loved her eggs. Both the ones our wonderful vet gave her so many years ago, and the ones my mom made for her more recently.

Playing with Gara in the Christmas present I got them.

Being woken up because dad wanted snuggles!

Lurking in her lair. A fuzzy alligator.

She sometimes ‘spilled’ when napping in there.

She still snuggled with me, even when I made her take icky meds.

And while it’s a bit blurry, she gave me kisses. She didn’t hold a grudge.

It’s blurry…but its the most recent picture I have that shows just what a sweetheart she was. She’d just rest her chin on me and that’s all it took.

 

Goodbye sweetie. Gara and I will miss you so much…

Jun 022013
 

More sad news…Draco passed away today.

We had taken him to the vet this week after noticing his weight was rapidly decreasing. The physical found pretty much nothing wrong with him at all, except the weight loss and some poor quality stool. The tentative diagnosis was IBD…with the usual caveat of potential lymphoma. Both are very common with ferrets, and both are difficult to diagnose accurately without surgical biopsies.

We opted to treat for IBD with metronidazole and vitamin B shots. He was on the meds for several days, and received them this morning. But tonight when I went to rouse the furkids for playtime, he was curled up comfortably in bed, and had passed away. The situation is pretty much identical to that we experienced with Ysabell, so it seems he likely had lymphoma after all, and something catastrophic happened, such as a rupture.

Good-bye Toe-cruncher…you will be missed.

Feb 082013
 

We had to make the tough decision to let Minion go this morning. I will post more details later, but for now I just wanted everyone to know that he has gone. And behind him, he leaves a legacy of over 5 years of love and joy, and an enduring legacy that has seen us adopt 6 other ferrets thus far over the years, and will continue into the future of providing loving, wonderful, and exciting homes for many ferrets. Way to go, little buddy. We’ll always miss you, but you really had a good life and we couldn’t ask for better memories.

Dec 142012
 

Got a message today, that our ferret matriarch, Nyx, had passed away. She’d been having some issues with adrenal gland tumors, and as it turns out, had some other cancer issues as well.

Nyx was the ferret that started it all, the original one of the business we’ve built up over time. My cousins got her, and I found out that my allergies weren’t bothered by ferrets like they were with many other animals…so we got Minion. Then we got JJ and Ys. Then they got Bandit and Ares and Draco. And it just sort of inflated from there, as ferrets tend to do. She lived a long, fun-filled life, in which she got to interact with a dozen different ferrets, and many loving humans. It’s hard to think of a better life for a ferret, except to have it be even longer.

Nyx with adrenal hair loss

Nyx with adrenal hair loss

Sleepy Nyx

Sleepy Nyx

Now Jack-Jack and Ys have one of their original playmates back again. Play on, fur-kids!