From:
- Z -
Date: 2002-04-22 11:18:00 UTC
Subject: Amelia
Today, April 22, after a lengthy battle with long term serious ilnesses,
Amelia let me know that she was ready to rest and that her body just
couldn't keep going any longer. She went to sleep in my arms for the last
time this morning at Angell Memorial. She was seven and a half, and had
been fighting insulinoma for the last year and a half. More recently she'd
developed a heart murmur, probable lymphoma (we never biopsied but there's
no real reason to doubt it), and an unknown mass in her thoracic cavity that
was pressing on her lung. She was a tough little girl who made it longer
than any of the vets thought she could on sheer determination, I think, but
in the end the inevitable cannot be fought, not even by the most determined
ferret.
I had her from the time she was 7 weeks old and fit in the palm of my hand;
she grew up feeling safe and secure in her opinion that she was the equal of
any person she ever met, and far superior to any ferret (other ferrets were
nasty beasts in her eyes). She slept curled up next to me at night and
sometimes woke me up by grooming my eyebrows. I'm sure I will have other
ferrets in the not too distant future, because I can't imagine not living
with ferrets, but there will never be another Amelia.
My mother wrote this family fable a few weeks ago as Amelia's health was in
serious decline. I'm not a rainbow bridge sort of person, keeping my
beliefs more personal, but I found this very comforting.
http://www.channel1.com/users/regina/hunt.html
hug those who are precious to you,
Regina
(BIG, could you unsub me? I'm sure I'll be back, but for now I have to
leave for a bit. I joined the FML a couple of months after Amelia came into
my life; it will be strange not to have it every morning but I think it
would make me cry. FHL moderators, I can take care of my FHL settings)
[Reminder from the moderators: sympathy notes should be sent privately. You may do that by copying her address and using it, or by selecting her address and clicking on that instead of "reply". When a message includes useful health info that is an addition to a discussion as well as a meniton of sympathy those are permitted, but not straight sympathy notes, and since she is planning to not read for while public notes would not reach Regina.]