Rants by Jennifer: And Then There was One

12/11/2010: Wicket is not pleased after taking a bath.

On Monday night, when we took the ferrets out to play, Todd noticed that Wicket had a swollen mass protruding from his back. It didn't hurt him, but it felt like it was probably the same mass that we noticed before his vet appointment about a month ago, just growing really fast. Since his ferretonin injection, we hadn't seen any fur growth, and in fact had noticed he was even balder than before. He still ate his treats with gusto and dooked and did a few things characteristic of him, but just had less energy and just wanted to sit and cuddle more than anything.

We decided that it was probably time, and that we would call the vet the next morning. We had planned to board both of them at the vet's office while we were out of town, but he wasn't doing very well, and we wanted to be able to be with him at the end, instead of having to possibly make a decision over the phone and not get a chance to say goodbye. The quality of his end of life was a bit better than Wiley's, in that he was still eating and had the desire to explore, but he was losing some of the function of his back legs, and was overall just very lethargic.

On Tuesday morning, Wicket was still listless and didn't even try to get up when Todd opened up the doors to pet him. I called the vet and we made an appointment for that morning to get him euthanized. I took Wiley to get put down alone, but I didn't get a chance to be with him at the very end -- the doctor had to take him to the back and possibly inject him directly in the heart because he was so fidgety. This time, she offered a tranquilizer injection to first get Wicket sleepy, so that we could be there. It was very peaceful, and he was actually asleep when his heart stopped beating. We left him with one of his favorite squeaky toys. I hope Wiley doesn't get mad when Wicket shows up with a toy, because I never thought to leave Wiley with his favorite ball when I had him put down.

We both cried, and it's very sad to think he won't be around to dook and chase our socked feet anymore. He licked us both just before falling asleep with the tranquilizer, and I like to think it was him saying he loves us and that he trusted us to do the right thing for him. I like to think he had a good 7 years (pretty long for a ferret!) with me/us, and that he was happy being loved by us. I think we were pretty lucky to have gotten to love the best ferret in the world.