From:
keldah99@yahoo.com
Date: 2002-07-18 13:54:58 UTC
Subject: barely alive @ petstore -- could he live??? :(
To: ferrethealth@smartgroups.com
Message-ID: <15612573.1027000498487.JavaMail.root@scandium>
Hello everyone. This might be a little long, but PLEASE,PLEASE, PLEASE bea=
r with me and read my story. =
Yesterday was one of the most heart wrenching days of my life. Brandon and=
I went to the pet store to get another water bottle and litter, but we alw=
ays stop and play with the babies waiting for a new home. There were about=
10 in the cage and were a pretty good size, as big as Goku who is 1yr and =
5 mths. There were two new ones, very little, the size of my hand. They s=
till had their baby teeth and seeing the food they had to eat, which is the=
same I feed my babies, made me mad because the only way the little ones co=
uld eat was by nawing on the food until it broke into smaller pieces they c=
ould chew. (I'm notorious for saying stuff to the people that work there a=
bout giving the smaller ones moistened kitten food until their teeth get bi=
gger, and after a few complaints, made them put two more water bottles in t=
heir cage as opposed to the ONE they had for the 10-15 ferrets in the cage.=
) Anyway, we rubbed and played with all the babies and made them happy, un=
til Brandon nugged one that was sleeping. He didn't move. I slid him over=
and picked him up, and my heart sunk. He was not that much bigger than th=
e new ones, maybe 8-10 weeks old, limp as a noodle, and his body was no big=
ger than the circle you can make with your thumb and middle finger. I coul=
d feel all of his ribs. I thought he was dead. I laid him across the lid =
of their cage and massaged his chest and rested my fingers to find a heart =
beat. After a few tries, I found a very weak but steady one. For a while =
he wouldn't breathe. I put my face as close to his chest as possible to se=
e if he was even breathing. He was breathing in relatively short gasps, li=
ke he'd breathe, very long pause, and remember to breathe again. When he d=
id this, his chest would barely move to show he was breathing. He wasn't r=
esponding to anything I did to revive him, like I do for my kids when they =
sleep pretty deep. But this was no deep sleep, he was barely hanging on to=
breathe. I gently opened his eye and his gaze was the opposite direction =
it should have been. I'm a college student with barely enough money to get=
by, but if I had just $100 more, either on me or even in my bank account w=
hich is practically empty, I would have taken him home and tried to fix him=
. In my mind, that way he'd know some love and attention before his time r=
an out, he'd be missed by someone, he'd have ...a name..... I know a girl =
that works there and showed her the baby and told her that he probably woul=
dn't make it to the weekend. Everything I said to her about his condition =
and what I showed her upset her, and she took him to some back room where t=
hey take the sick/dying ones. =
So my quesion is, is there any way that he might get better? If I would ha=
ve been able to buy him I would have taken him directly to the vet, and I'm=
sure all he'll get in the pet store is food and water. Given the state I =
described him in, is there any hope? I know babies have deep sleeps and br=
eathe in gasps like that, but trust me, this was drastically different and =
all of you would know that deep in your hearts if you saw him for just one =
second. He was like a rag doll, very, lethargic (sp?) is the word that I t=
hink I'm trying to say.
It broke my heart to leave him, I cried all the way home. One of the many =
thoughts that ran through my head was that he was a darker, smaller version=
of Goku, and one day, Kira and Goku would be like that, and I won't be abl=
e to wake my babies up. So, in my mind, I named him Bear, which he looked =
like, and I have the small satisfaction of giving him some love and attenti=
on, along with a piece of my heart, and I will miss him when he's gone. It=
breaks my heart that he'll never know what it's like to have a family and =
a home, so I'm volunteering in my heart to be that for him.
I just wanted to share my story and my grief, and hear what others think. =
Forgive me if I was drawn out.
Keldah
=