Last Saturday (29/08/15), we were off to the Great Dorset Steam Fair, so were busy putting the finishing touches to loading the caravan etc, even before we had had our first morning cup of tea.
As normal, we set up all the ferret travel cages the night before we go, which always seems to be the cue for the ferrets to get over excited, making Soup and Raw meat time Friday evening, very interesting, as they all go extra insane for it. This Friday night was pretty much the same, only this time we had to actually wake Ripple up for her meat. Once awake, she was the scary ferret she always was, snatching the meat, screeching at the others and running into a corner to scoff it all down, before running back to get more in the same manner. She would even pinch the last bit from Bournville the Polecats mouth if he wasn't quick enough.....
One of the last jobs to do, before we depart, is to find all the ferrets, and load them into their respective cages, put them in the car, and then clean out the house cages, before running out the door and setting off as early as possible...
This day was not going to be quite like that though... when we got up in the morning, Ripple did not come to greet us for her morning lot of Convalescent soup, which we have to make at the same time as our first cup of tea as she will will not stop getting under our feet until it is done. So as she was missing when we finally got to making the tea, we went to look for her, and found her asleep in one of the beds, but looking in a bad way....
Exhausted just after she arrived here..
Ripple came to us as a waif and stray, she was living under some ones greenhouse, and was fighting the foxes and badgers for the scraps the lady put out for them. The lady was not actually sure if she was a ferret, or one of their more wild cousins, but was worried for her safety and found us via our web site. The following morning, one of the times she normally came out to eat, we went over to see if we could identify her, and maybe catch her if she was indeed a ferret. I also went armed with Aero, to see if he could tempt her out from under the greenhouse if she failed to show. Sure enough, she failed to show, so I set Aero to work going round the holes dug by the greenhouse, which he found very exciting until this little black and white head shot out of one of the holes and told him in very un-lady like words to go away. Poor Aero had never had anyone talk to him like that, jumped back several feet, and refused to go back anywhere near any of the holes again. Luckily the section of the greenhouse she was under had loose floor boards, so we stuck flower pots in the holes we could see, and I set to work lifting the boards, while the man and his wife kept an eye on the holes to see if she tried to make a run for it. I ended up managing to grab her as I lifted a board, and luckily she did not bite me.
Once we got her home, and checked her over, we realised she was in a bit of a bad way, in season, under nourished, covered in fleas and ticks, with very bad teeth, and we found out later, after taking her to the vets for a check up, she had had the canines deliberately snapped off by someone. The Vet said she was around 5 years old, maybe older, and before we could do anything with her, we needed to get her weight back up, and see if she would make it through the next couple of weeks.
Luckily she recovered and turned out to be one of the nicest ferrets you could ever ask for, never a bite in her, loved to eat and play, and always made any subsequent new ferrets feel right at home by taking them under her wing, while always showing them where the food was. When Revel arrived, I think it was her, who single handedly convinced him that life was still worth living, and taught him how to play, oh, and where the food was... About the only blot on her otherwise perfect report card was it was her fault that we ended up with Galaxy the Git...
Ohhh Ripple, how could you?
Last Christmas, we thought we were going to loose her, as she was very ill, but the antibiotics did their job, and she recovered, but for some reason after that, she became incontinent, which often resulted in us have to wander round cleaning a trail from the floor just after she woke up and rushed to the litter tray. I have to admit sometimes we found it hard going, as it did feel like all we were doing was cleaning up ferret poo, and to make things worse, if she did it when we were not around, the others then seemed to copy her, all missing the litter tray. We tried very hard not to be cross with her though, as she was probably about 10 years old, and she had always been the perfect ferret, so she had a right to be looked after into her old age, what ever happened.
So back to the present, we got her out of the bed, and immediately noticed that she had not been to the loo anywhere, and was breathing very shallowly. This was worse than last Christmas, and after trying her with some food/treats, we knew she was too far gone, and had decided her time to depart to the Bridge had arrived. we stopped and sat with her for a while, and after about 30 mins of cuddles from us, she passed away in Suz's arms.
We went off to the Steam fair with heavy hearts, but I did not want to rush writing about her, so decided to leave it until we got back home, and I could put the thought into it she deserved. She was a very special old lady, who very rarely acted her real age, and during her time with us, met, welcomed and helped about 25 other ferrets adjust to life in the Lazy-Ferret household. We did a lot of thinking about her over the holiday, many memories were just tiny insights to her, others were how much she loved her food, spending most of her waking hours at the food bowl, or begging for treats. She was a very sprightly agile old lady as well, still getting through the cat flap into and out of the run, even though on the run side it must be about 18 inches off the ground, and even taking the occasional trip upstairs to sleep under our bed, where thankfully she seemed to make it to the litter trays with out any mishaps.
I think the best way is for you all to see her pictures, you can see her character beautifully in these.
First time out on a lead in the big wide world.
If it involved drink or food she was there like a shot.
Revel and Ripple, My mouth is bigger than yours game...
Our first "Tree climbing" ferret.
Kisses galore...
This is one of my favourite pictures, as is shows her "laughing", which she always did when she played...
