Mr. Jingles
On June 18th 2008, Mr Jingles came to join the family at Zoo`s Ferret Sanctuary. His family was in crisis, and bankrupt. They were already spending $200.00 a month on medicine for their dog with Cushing`s disease. Mr. Jingles was insulinomic & on pred-- and had now begun to lose his fur...
The vet quoted the family $1000. for surgery, and ordered well over $100.00 worth of diazoxide without the family`s authorization. They were unable to pay for these things, and made the painful decision to surrender their ferret to animal control. They were hoping someone out there would adopt this sweet ferret & love him--and get him the help he needed...
Animal control told them that since the ferret was already on meds, they would "probably just put him down" Then they advised the family to "Try Zoo`s Ferret Sanctuary. They take on these types of cases" they said.
Mr. Jingles is about four years old, looks six, and is not very well. He has been on a very high dose of prednisone, and is very adrenal. His spleen & lymph nodes are enlarged. He got a lupron shot the night he came, and is on amoxi, in hopes that it`s an infection we are dealing with, and not lymphoma. His energy level is very low. We are slowly adjusting his meds, and at this point he is doing a bit better.
He is very gentle -- not a mean bone in his body--and a kisser!!!
Here is our sweet Mr. Jingles, eating some turkey baby food.
More later!
Love, Zoo
I write this with a heavy heart.
A couple weeks ago, Mr. Jingles wasn`t doing very well. He had dropped some weight. We alerted his former family, who has stayed in his life. They came to see him, and say goodbye. It looked as if he didn`t have long. He wasn`t in pain--but we could see signs that he would be leaving us soon.
The next day, Mr. Jingles rallied, & ate some soup! He toddled around outside the cage for short periods of time, and it looked like life was going to be good again, for a while.
Last night, (Sept. 21st) he wanted nothing to do with food again--and he looked very tired... Over the next several hours, he just faded away.
We make certain that no furkid here dies in pain or fear. Mr. Jingles was in neither. He just slowed down, & went to sleep. It was as if he knew it was time. (To be honest, the furkids accept death much better than we do.)
Mr. Jingles`s former family came to pay their last respects, and we allowed them to take his body home for burial. This was not a case of a family just dumping off a sick ferret. They had made a love decision, in the ferret`s best interest.
We hope they will keep in touch, and visit us from time to time, when they need a fuzzy fix.
We will ALL miss Mr. Jingles`s sweet kisses. He gave the best ferret kisses ever...
He was a wonderful ferret. Such a sweet, loving boy...
This hurts.
Love, Zoo