In August 2018, we drove to Amesbury to buy an 8 week old kit. It was the first time in our 19 years of owning ferrets that we had set out specifically to choose our own kit from new. Don’t get me wrong, we are totally committed to the rescues, but just for once we wanted to choose a ferret colour and sex, and not just get what somebody else did not want. As seems to be the way when buying/rehomeing ferrets, we came home with two kits, a very feisty Sandy jill, and a nibbly Silver jill.
These 2 were to join an existing group consisting of Flyte, an old lady, who would most likely tell the kits where to go, and then ignore them, Topic, a boy who would be scared of them, and probably run and hide every time he saw them, and Bourneville, another hob who we had no concerns about getting on with anybody.
Unfortunately, things did not work out this way, Flyte loved them to bits, Topic became a surrogate “Mum”, following them everywhere, and showing them all the bad things they could get up too, but Bourneville took an instant dislike to them, and on the first night tried to kill the sandy Jill. We were totally caught off guard, as not only did we not expect Bourneville to be so bad, but also as the Sandy jill was the feisty one, we expected she would stand up to him. Ironically, the Silver Jill who was much more subdued, took Bonny attacking her sister very badly, and laid into Bourneville, taking many weeks to forgive him.
Over the next couple of weeks, they grew into their names, the Sandy becoming Toffee, short for Toffee Crisp, and the silver jill became Sherbet.
Toffee settled into life here, and eventually brought Bourneville round, often seeking him out to sleep with. She had a real fixation with bells, in fact anything that jingled. Her first Christmas, Suz bought her a whole box of about 50 Jingle Balls, which she loved stashing all round the house. Every time we picked up a shoe, bowl, cushion, or bedding a jingle ball would fall out, closely followed by a Toffee scampering over to grab it and re-hide it somewhere new.
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For my birthday, Suz got me a Lego kit, which Toffee thought was great, and kept stealing the yellow bits. We got her some yellow bits of her own, but she was not interested, she just wanted the bits I needed.
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She was the original “Ferret Thief”, steeling anything she thought she could get away with, but the one that had us in fits was when she pinched a 6 pack of roll on deodorant and spent an evening trying to get it out through the cat flap, or up the stairs. In the end, we compromised, and she took the plastic tray they came in. From then on, any time we got one of those plastic trays, she was in heaven, taking it everywhere with her, slowly chewing it up and destroying it.
I noticed she would seek Suz out when either of them was tired, and would climb up for a cuddle. I told Suz to nurture this, as she had the potential to become a real cuddlebum. Sure enough as time went on, she would seek Suz out, and just curl up for a cuddle while Suz watched TV, or surfed the web. She would also come and find Suz in bed and cuddle up with her there. Once in a blue moon, she would cuddle me as well but only a “poor mans” choice. The kisses however were all reserved for Suz.
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Toffee and her Sister had that ferret way of always making us laugh, causing trouble, chasing us all over the house, and playing tag with us. We took them out with us, when every we could, and they loved going down to my mum’s house and exploring there when they got the chance.
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Toffee came into season earlier in the year, but as she was born quiet late last year, we did not want to get her neutered yet, so we got her the Jill Jab. Her sister never came into season at all. A week or so ago, she started to get the smell again, so this time we decided as she was now nearly 14 months old, to get her spayed, and made the appointment.
We dropped her off at the vets, and as is normal, the vet gave her a pre-op MOT, and then we signed the paperwork, and left her there, expecting to go back about 3pm to collect to her. Suz was really worried for her, especially after reading the clauses on the vet form, but I reminded her that it was a routine op, and we had had many ferrets go through it over the years.
Now here is the weird part, when we got back home, I let Sherbet back out to play in the garden, and about lunch time I caught her playing manically with someone on the patio. I was surprised as all the oldies are in bed by midday, so I went to see who it was. I realised she was playing alone, but just like she would do, when playing Tag with Toffee. I watched her for a few mins, and had this horrible feeling, it was for all the world like she was playing with a ghost, but I dismissed it, as Toffee was going through a routine op, which we have had done to ferrets 20 or so times.
Not long after, we got a phone call from the vets, and I have to say it was like a kick in the head. The Op had all gone well, and Toffee was in the recovery area, when her heart just stopped. They tried everything, Adrenalin, heart massage, artificial respiration, but nothing would bring her back.
We are totally gutted, we have Topic with his heart issues on borrowed time, and Snicker, who is old, and living on borrowed time, but the last thing in the world we were expecting was to loose Toffee, so we are both sitting here dumbstruck.
You were a monster who I loved dearly
![LH Kiss :kiss1:](http://www.fluffyferretforum.co.uk/forum/Smileys/Ferret Smileys/lh_kiss.gif)
, and I love how you took Suz under your spell. I am so sorry I made light of you going in for the Op, I honestly never in a million years thought anything could really go wrong, and was looking forward to you being able to climb into bed with us, smell free, and no longer setting my eyes up.
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