Life is funny, you know?


Two Saturdays ago, Andrew & I went to a ferret club meeting for the first time in about 6 mos. We had hoped that it would be fun for our remaining ferret to have friends to play with. Cleopatra (aka Baby Girl, said "BB Girl" or just "B") has been really lonely now that Max is gone. Well, she wanted nothing to do with those 41 other ferrets. She stayed in her carrier and nipped at anyone who tried to come in to say "hello". We finally just shut the door to give her some privacy. Poor sweet girl.


While at the meeting, we were approached by the Queen Shelter Mom who asked if we would take two sable boys to foster. The shelter currently had 102 ferrets, and she had no room. We met the boys, and they were so sweet. Sadly, their last owner had thought that they were girls! I mean, honestly, ferrets don't have the biggest penises, but how would you like to be a guy and be called "Momma" or "Baby"?? Yep--those were their names. They lived in Durham in a cage on a balcony! I'm really glad that we are able to give them a better home than that.


So...we brought them home, set up the second cage, and settled in to be the best foster parents ever. :)


By the end of day 2, the older one got sick and, by the end of Day 3, the other one was sick too. They wouldn't eat, and nothing would stay down or in, if you know what I mean. We had to feed them Pedialyte and wet food with a syringe several times a day. It was like having a baby....something totally dependent on you for life. That night, we decided on their names: Theoden & Eomer, as in King Theoden from the Lord of the Rings trilogy and his nephew Eomer.


On Day 3, Theoden went to the vet, and, then, again, on Day 6 because he wasn't improving. (Thankfully, Eomer was only sick for one day.) Theoden got meds to take 2x a day at the second vet visit. Thankfully, the vet didn't think that he had an obstruction; he just thought he was stressed out from changing owners. Basically, he & Eomer went from this woman who had them 3 mos to the shelter volunteer for a few days and then to us.


The cool thing was that we noticed how much Theoden reminded us of our ferret Gandalf who passed away in October, and, strangely, Eomer reminds us somewhat of Max who passed away Jan 3. Weird, I tell you, and downright eerie sometimes.


Last night, Andrew & I were sitting on the couch eating dinner on our little tv dinner tables. Theoden & Eomer were in the playpen in the middle of the floor. Theoden came out of his cozy Coke box where he had been napping and sniffed the air. He wanted our chicken. We gave him a tiny piece and he ate it! Then, we got him some banana (which Gandalf used to love) and he ate that too. It was a start. After 9 days of feeding him everything that he ate or drank, finally Theoden ate!


Today, he's fine. King Theoden recovered from his bout of "shelter shock". Now, if we can just get Cleo to be nice. She's not been very welcoming to her new brothers. These things take time though.