Sorry, this is going to be a long one... I am writing it through tears...
Back on the 2nd of August, 2012, a special rescue ferret came into our lives... Little could we have known just how special she would turn out to be, and how short the time was we would have with her, or the Joy and pride she would bring us.
I picked Snowy, a small Albino Jill up from a house in Tunbridge, and she was in a disgustingly dirty, small indoor Guinea pig cage, with a Welding glove on the top of it. The cage, along with 2 others, was in a small wooden shed with no windows, that stank at the bottom of the garden. The guy was so scared of her, that as he and his friend carried the cage out to my car, if she went to the end that they were carrying, they would panic and put the cage down, until she returned to the middle. Even when they had their hands under the plastic tray, they were still very wary of her. The only information I got was she was about 5 years old, called Snowy, and may be pregnant (Luckily she wasn't). Oh, and that he had run out of ferret food about 3 days ago....
She came as part of a bundle of 9 ferrets, and the other ferrets included 6, 3 day old kits, and their mum and dad, so unfortunately she had to take a bit of a back burner for the first few days of being here, as all the focus was on the mum and kits that had been moved at the worst possible stage of their lives.
The original plan was not to keep any of them... well possibly with the exception of the huge Albino Hob... as we have a soft spot for them, and he knew when he was onto a good thing, giving Suz kisses from the moment he met her...
It was decided that as soon as the kits were old enough to safely be moved again, we would be taking the 2 jills and the 6 kits off to the rescue. Yeah... Right..... As we all know, Fate and Ferrets often have alternative plans to the ones we make.
Upon getting them all home, the First thing I did was turf Snowy out of her nasty maggot infested wood shaving filled cage and into our fleece lined Explorer. I used the Welding glove to move her, and true to what the guy said, she laid into it big time, easily biting right through it, so I could still feel her teeth. I left her alone to settle in, and that night waited until she was in the bottom of the Explorer, before popping some soup and raw meat into the top. She was up like a shot, a quick sniff, and drank every last drop of soup, before eating her meat. Over the next few days, I kept my distance, letting her out into the run, and then once she had had a good play, would go out armed with the glove, and put her back into the cage. Each night I would give her the soup and meat, in which ever section of the cage she was not in. Over those days, I would not put the glove on properly, so that when she snapped and got the glove in her mouth, I could easily slip my hand out and hold her with bare hands, gently stroking her, while he mouth was occupied with killing the glove. We also started to let her into the kitchen and hall way a few times when we were doing things like making tea, so she could explore and get the odd treat, and get used to us moving around her, without hurting her. This was when she discovered the two plush toys we have hanging in the hall which when knocked, make a "Boing" sound. She would lay into these toys, beating merry hell out of them, making a real din. When we played with her, using them, she loved it, and would just keep going and going, never getting board.
One night, after she had been here about a week or so, I went out into the run while snowy was still very much awake, and when she saw me, she ran the length of one of the top shelves, launching herself over the edging barrier straight at my chest... Instinct kicked in, and without thinking, I caught her in my bare hands so she would not fall to the floor, and She actually just snuggled in to me....
I stopped using the glove, and over the next little while, I would make a point of letting her come to me, and give her a little stroke, as she was drinking her soup, or while she was still asleep, and sometimes she would turn round and threaten me, but there was no force in it, and often, she would just melt into it and enjoy.
We were in a quandary now, as we were going on holiday, and had arranged that Snowy, Megan and the 6 kits (Minus the kissy Hob who was now ensconced in with our Ikea crew) would go to the rescue a few days before we left. But... by now the Kits were just getting to the interesting stage, their eyes were opening, and they were getting around, Mum was enjoying some time away from them, and Snowy was acting as a foster mum as well, taking some of the load off of Megan... It was so much fun to see...
We asked Roy (from the Rescue) if we could pick them back up when we returned from holiday, and keep them a bit longer, at least until the Kits were old enough to be re-homed, as, we have always had rescue ferrets, so this was the first (And probably only) time in our lives we would experience ferret babies. I also wanted Snowy back, as I had fallen for her by then, and was seriously thinking of keeping her.
When we picked them up, Snowy was so happy to see us, she danced a real Jig for us, dooking and dancing all over the place, and going insane when we got her home. We put her, Megan and the 6 kits all into one cage, and enjoyed every moment.
Since I wanted to keep her, I tried to get her into the Ikea cage, but she took an instant dislike to "The Git", and would mercilessly chase him non-stop for 20 odd minutes round the house and garden, all the time, with him screaming like a little girl, and her a few inches from his tail. The other ferrets would just sit back and watch this with great amusement... I would at some Point break them up, and then try again the next day, but always had the same results. Sometimes, Galaxy would find somewhere to hide, and she would then start on the others until they ratted The Git out, but most times, it was just Galaxy that got the brunt of it.
I decided that since she was such a little Stinker and so able to stand up for herself to try her in with Aero and his crew, but that has to be one of the worst mistakes I have ever made, the 4 boys just went in for the Kill, and we had real panic stations trying to get them off of her, with blood all over the place. I finally managed to picked her up, but she was covered in blood, and literally just lay in my arms crying and sobbing... Never have I felt so bad in my life... We cleaned her up, and luckily, most of the blood was from a nose bleed, where they had banged her head on the floor, and her scruff, although she had bites all over her. I had to hold her cuddled into me for over an hour before she stopped whimpering and holding my thumb with her front paws. Luckily, no lasting damage was done, but this left us with a quandary, as I wanted to keep her, but she would not go in with any of our other ferret groups.
As they say, time marches on, and somehow things just sort of fell into place, we ended up keeping the kits mum, one of the kit Jills, and Snowy, as a group, as they played so fantastically together. Somehow, they started sleeping upstairs under our bed during the day, and then stayed out all night as well, and became known as the 3 Witches.
Snowy engulfed her new life, loving every moment of human interaction, and went out of her way to make up for every second of lost time she had had in the past. Everyday, as we got up and dressed, She would come up onto the bed, and play with us, She specifically liked to try and pinch each item of clothing, or to climb into the sleeve or leg nipping your hand or foot as you tried to put it on, and she also liked to attack the hair dryer as Suz used it, dancing so energetically across the bed, often she would dance right off the edge, and have to climb back on to carry on. Then when she was happy you were going to go down stairs, she would race you down the stairs, and when you got to the bottom, grab your trouser leg, and savage it, before doing the remainder of the hallway backwards with her head held high, and mouth wide open.
We would them let them out into the garden, for their morning run, where they would dive out bundling in the morning dew, popping back in every few mins to see if we had anything interesting to eat or drink, before again bouncing off and heading back out into the garden. Snowy and Flyte would spend hours bundling and play fighting. Every day, at some point, she would come in, stand at the bars of Aero's cage, her tail wagging manically from side to side, telling him what she would like to do to him if she ever got the chance of a re-match, and Aero would launch at the bars, telling her to "Bring it on", where she would taunt him for a few seconds longer, still with her tail wagging, before belting back out into the garden for another bout with Flyte or Megan. They were the queen's of the tubes, spending huge amounts of time just chasing each other continually through them, all in a line.
Later we would realise it was quiet, and discover they had all gone back upstairs to bed, often in a storage box under the bed, or in my or Suz's sock draw, but occasionally they would slip under the Duvet and sleep where Suz slept.
For the remainder of the day, we would barely see them unless they popped down for food and a drink, or we went up stairs to the loo... In our house, it takes a long time for the hot water to get from the tank to the bathroom, and we would run all that cold water away down the drain. When we were put on a water meter, I made a container that fits under the bath tap, and instead of wasting the water, we run it into the container, collecting 5 litres of water each time. I then use this water to top the loo cistern up after we have flushed it (as they say, every little helps). This container of water in the bath has always fascinated Snowy, and every time you went to the loo, what ever the time day or night, she would hammer down the hallway, and stand on her back legs, using her front legs to repeatedly dig at your shins very fast... This became her signature way to get your attention when ever she wanted something. Then when you put your hand down to her, and she would grab around your wrist with her front paws, stepping onto your fingers with her rear legs, and get you to lift her to where ever she wanted to be, in the bathrooms case, it was in the bath, so she could play with the water container. Once finished, she would jump at the side of the bath until you put your hand in there, where she would again grab your write, and step into your hand, so you could lift her out, where once on the floor, she would go nuts, war dancing around, often smashing into things really hard, before hammering off back down the hall way, making more noise than a stampeding herd of Elephants. How can something so small make that much noise
Then each night, before we went to bed, she and the others would come down and wait for their soup and meat. If she thought we were running late, she would start beating up the "Boing" toys until we got up to see what all the noise was, then she would run and wait at the fridge. She always drank all the soup up, before moving on to the meat, then once we were ready to go up to bed, she would help us with our nightly ritual of getting ready for bed, checking each item of clothing as we took it off, rolling in it, and attacking your hand when you tried to pick it up to put it in the laundry hamper, then joining us in the Bathroom, as we ran the cold water into the container, sticking her head under the running tap, and just before we got into bed, she would dig at my legs, to remind me that she had not had her Ferretone..
In all our years of having ferrets, we have found that often the boys will kiss, but it is far more unusual for the Jills to do it, and Snowy was no exception, while she was happy to lick your hands, and even wet feet, if you put your face near her, the mouth would open wide... that was until about 6 months ago, when she decided Suz was worthy of a kiss one morning, and while she only kissed me once, I normally got the large open moth, she went on to regularly give Suz kisses, most days.
It always amazed me we had gone from a ferret you needed a Welding Glove to handle, to this little bundle of pure raw energy, with the biggest Zest for life you could ever imagine, who would lay in your arms enjoying a fuss, and even doled out Kisses to the worthy ones.
For the last Week, I have had really bad Hay Fever, and last night had a very bad night, so was feeling quite rough when I woke up this morning. I was feeling so sorry for myself, I failed to notice Snowy did not join me in the Bathroom, or come up onto the bed to help us get dressed, or attack the Hair dryer when Suz dried her hair. We came down stairs, too wrapped up in our own things to realise she did not race us down the stairs and hall way either. I did however notice she had not threatened Aero's cage yet, and that Flyte seemed to be lacking a play partner, so after I finished breakfast, I went to try and find her, expecting to find her laying in the sun, on the warm spot of the bed. Imagine my shock, when I found her laying on the floor under my side of the bed, stone cold. I have no idea what happened, she was in great shape as far as we knew, beautiful coat, and so full of life right up until the end.
We are so sorry Snowy, somehow we managed to fail you right at the end, you made sure you were so much part of our life that we managed to take your madness and playfulness for granted, your continual zest for life, and ability to make us laugh out loud at your antics, even at 3am in the morning will always be remembered. I have no idea why you had to leave us so suddenly or so soon, but for some reason, a higher force has decided you are needed somewhere else. We hope your 20 months here were filled with so much fun, that in some way we helped make up for the first 5 years of your life stuck in that tiny dirty cage. Please wait for us at the Bridge, you are a very very special little Girl, and while we are so much better for having known you, we feel you have taken a massive piece of our hearts with you.
Sweet Dreams our special little White Witch.
