Dana Katherine FoxOctober 31st, 1997--December 23rd, 1997
Dana was a female burmese gerbil that I got from my friend Kelly, who lives in Wisconsin. Her parents were both burmese (named Niblet and Gizmo), but she had a white siblings. She arrived in a playmate cooler on December 16th. 1997 after being stuck in the holiday mail for 3 days! She arrived, sadly, with an infected tail from a wound inflicted upon her by an older gerbil before her departure. This eventually lead to her end. The tail was swollen (as you can see in the picture above) and we had thought that it was an abscess. Fearing Dana would lose her tail due to blood loss, I called upon my mother (a registered nurse) to puncture the swelling to relieve the pressure.
We held her still in a sock so that we could poke the tail and not get bitten while doing so. My mom poked it, but no "puss" came out (as should with an abscess) so we released her since she was struggling. She never moved again = ( We still don't know just what caused her to die . . . My mother has a feeling it wasn't an abscess at all, but some type of cancer or tumor.
I'm trying to put aside the tremendous guilt I feel for asking my mom to treat Dana in the first place, since it is all my fault that she died, and trying to move on. Dana's mate, Fox, is/was alone in his tank and he now needs a new mate. His new companion will end up being, more than likely, Dana's sister (Dana II).
Dana, if you're up in gerbil heaven, and somehow surfing the 'net, then please know that I didn't mean any harm. You heard me how I was fretting over scaring you too much, I didn't want anything to happen to you. I should have gone with my gut instinct and left the swelling alone. Maybe then you'd still be with us.
Go to the widower's page.