Many happy dooks to you, our special Baby Gurl, Pretty Gurl.
To read about others ferrets, click here.
Girl was born sometime in 1994. We got her in 1996. My
husband had been looking in the classified papers and
noticed that some people were selling ferrets. He mentioned
this to me, and though I had never seen a ferret before, or
knew anything about them, I said that if he wanted to, to go
ahead and get one. A lady was selling a male and a female
with the cage, so he made an appointment to go and see them.
Apparently, by the time he got there, the male had already
been sold. So he bought the female and the cage, and
brought them home.
"What's her name?" I asked.
"I dunno."
"Well, we need to think of a name for her."
So, while we tried to think of a name, we referred to her
as girl and the name stuck. She stole my heart, as ferrets
often do. Poor thing, as I think back now, how ignorant we
were. She rarely was let out of her cage. We didn't know
that they needed to be let out at least 2 hours every day.
But, I do remember the times when we did let her out.
Seeing her small form running up and down the stairs,
dooking and weasel war dancing. We didn't know they could
be litter trained, so we lined the bottom of the cage with
newspaper, and we thought it was so cute how she would
wipe her bottom after doing her business. I bought her a
fuzzy hammock and a harness with a bell, so that we could
find her during those few times we let her run around the
house. The hammock quickly became her favorite sleeping
spot. When we moved from Virginia to Oregon, we put the
hammock and her into a pet carrier and drove across the
country. She never made a peep, or scratched to get out.
When we finally moved into an apartment, we found more
information about ferrets, so, consequently, her living
conditions improved. We let her out all the time. I bought
her toys I thought she might like. Once, we went to the
bookstore, and they had put our book in a plastic bag.
It fell to the floor later that evening, and when we let her
out, she found it. Oh how she could make some noise with
that bag! She loved it! We took her to a ferret fun match
since it had been over a year since she had seen other
ferrets, and what fun she had! Sniffing all those other
ferrets! As we readied to leave, we noticed her vulva
sticking out. We thought perhaps it was the excitement of
the fun match, but, when it didn't go away, I jumped online
to see if I could find out what might be wrong with her.
Sure enough, adrenal problems. So, off to the vet we went,
who confirmed my suspicions, and she had surgery to remove
one of her adrenal glands. She recovered well from the
surgery, and was back to her old self in no time. During the
years we had her, she and my husband developed a special
bond. Whenever we would bring her out of her cage, she
would lick his ears and eyebrows and face, and they would
snuggle together. She was his "Baby Gurl", and I think she
knew that somehow. I thought perhaps we ought to get her
some companions to play with. She was so well behaved and
so sweet, I longed to have other ferrets like her around.
Off to the shelter we all went, and picked out two more
ferrets. After a night and day of getting used to each other
we were able to let them all play together. Girl and the
new female, Frankie, were partners in crime! This was in
March of 97. About a week after we brought the new ferrets
home, the male, Drake, got sick. I hauled him to the vet,
who diagnosed kidney infection. We got the meds, and as
soon as he recovered, Girl got sick. So, I took her to the
vet. He diagnosed Helicobater. Got the meds for her as
well. She would do better for awhile, and then get worse.
We continued to pump the meds into her, but they didn't seem
to make much difference. She quit eating. We fed her Duck
soup, chicken baby food, anything she would eat. Her back
legs quit working, she dragged them around behind her. She
alternated between having diarrhea and then not. She had
bloody stools for awhile, then that stopped. We tried to
figure out what was wrong but, to no avail. She never got
better. Finally, after two months, my husband had had
enough of watching her suffer. He held her in his arms,
tenderly, but firmly, and as the tears coursed down his
cheeks, and the sobs wrenched from his chest, he hugged her
until she was gone. I stroked her head and cried as she left
us. My husband took out one of his flannel shirts, the
kind she used to love to curl up in, and wrapped her in it.
He placed her in a box with her harness and her bag, and then
wrapped the box with white tape. He and I each wrote a good
bye message on the box. The children made her a card. Then
we piled into the car and drove to a park. We walked for
about half an hour until we were in a small forest. As we
walked, my husband picked six perfectly formed daisies. We
found a large tree in the forest, and he dug a hole. He
gently placed the box and the children's card in the hole,
and picked up the flowers.
"Four for our thoughts," he said, and dropped them in.
"One for her freedom."
"One for her love."
As he replaced the dirt, I touched the old tree, and asked
it to watch over our friend, that she may rest in peace.
As we walked back to the car, we talked about Girl before
she got sick. How our daughter could hold her and sing to
her and she would fall asleep every time. How she once
crawled on our son's back and licked his ears and made him
giggle. The way she adored chocolate, and would eat a whole
tootsie roll if we let her. The special bond between her
and my husband. And that is how we will always remember her.
We miss you and we will never forget you.
Do you have a special memory of a beloved ferret who is now gone?
Tell us about it here
Ferret Pages
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