One day, back in 2013, we got one of those "You don't know me... but..." phone calls.
A guy was working in his garage, when a ferret wondered in... He had been ferreting with a mate many years ago, so knew what they were, but that was about all. He had caught it in a plastic crate, with one of his wife's jumpers, and he was feeding it with some dog food he had on hand.
So we put a carrier in the car, water and a small bowl of food, and drove the 12 miles to pick you up. When we got there, you were the skinniest boy we had ever seen, and as dirty and smelly as they go... By the time we got back home, you had finished the whole bowl of food off.
We put you in a boarding cages, hopper full of food, and a massive bowl of Convalescent powder mixed with lactofree milk, and were amazed how you immediately started using the litter tray, and were very interested in what was going on. We decided to let you settle in overnight, then once your belly was full, and you had had a good nights sleep, we would set to removing some of the ticks.
We put up some adverts to try and find your owners, and as we knew we were not in a position to keep you, since we already had 18 ferrets, we started looking for someone to take you on.
3 days later, we posted the following on the forum.
“He is a sweet little chap, very very in season, with huge rear wheels, but seems to be very friendly...
We let him out for a play, before I thought to put any shoes on, and while he sniffed my feet, he did not try to bite them. He is very chatty, and very inquisitive, but a day of regular soup, convalescent powder, and good food has already filled his tummy out a bit, although he is still very light. He is perfect at using the litter tray as well, it's just the continual leaking as he walks round that is a pain.
Little Flyte says she would like to meet and keep him!!!”
But that was not an option, we were full, and on top of that, would be going away in the caravan soon, and there was no way we wanted this smelly, flea and tick infested monster in a confined space of a caravan, near our guys.
There was also the problem that if you stayed here long enough to be neutered, etc, Suz would give you a name, and when ferrets are the colour and sex of you, it's hard for me to say "no" to keeping you as well, as I love beeny boys. Worse still, the longer you stay, the greater chance there is of Suz giving you a name, and if that happens, I would find you are going nowhere... By the 5th night,, just as we are about to turn the lights out to go up to bed, I heard her say "Night Night Mars", and I knew we were sunk, as we did not have one called that... Yet!
Well that was it, “The Stinker” was here to stay, but Mars was not a name that fitted you. Once you finished quarantine, we took you to the vets to have your “wheels “ removed, and introduced you to our other guys. You went absolutely mad, bouncing off the walls, furniture, fence, shed, greenhouse, other ferrets, you name it, you just bounced all over the place, all the time making a funny little hissy sound, just like you were sniggering at everything. That was when you got your name… “Snicker”.
You moved in and became a very strong character. You drank tea, like it was what every ferret did, and could not be trusted with a cup, as you were head first in, and tipping it over far quicker than we could move to save it.
We discovered that you had a cataract in one eye, which gradually got worse, and then later on you got one in the other eye. This never slowed you down though, and most of the time we would never have known, had it not been for the grey eyes, and the occasional bumping into something, when you were in a strange place.
You walked on a lead, and loved to play while on it, still bouncing and pouncing on everything, and every one, and still did your little “snicker” sound while doing it. Here is You and Reject out on a walk, life was always a game to you.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SRDJVdKnbTs&feature=youtu.beAnother thing that made you so special, was we could give you to anyone to hold, as you were 100% safe, showing just how great ferrets were, and somehow never bit anyone in all the time we had you.
Here is evidence of how you liked to share the cream off of Suz’s hot chocolate when we were at steam fairs.
and when walking got to much, how you would settle into our arms for a carry.
I am pretty sure you will always be totally unique in being the only ferret to sleep in the cab of a Green goddess Fire Engine, as it was driven around the Show Ring at the Great Dorset Steam Fair with full bells, siren and lights.
Unfortunately, just before Christmas, you got an infection in your teeth, and through a series of things going very wrong, we could not get you operated on until January. Even though you must have been in pain, you were still impeccably well behaved. Once we got you in, you had all your teeth removed, and were put on antibiotics and painkillers. Even though you went into a coma after the op, where it was thought you would not come round, you proved the vets wrong, and in true Snicker style, fought hard, and got to come back home. We made you up soft food, trying many different recipes with varying degrees of failure and success, fed you regularly through the day, with Suz’s also getting up at 4:30am each night, to give you an extra feed. Right up until your last day, you would get up in the morning, and go for a walk in the garden, rubbing in the damp grass to clean your fur, before coming back in, and choosing somewhere cosy to sleep with your cage mates.
We knew things were going down hill, when you started refusing all food, even the RC Convalescent, which you had loved from the day you arrived here. I did try to force feed you, and I am sorry to have put us both through that, as it was stressing us both out, but I needed to know we had tried everything we could. I knew then that you were trying to make it obvious that you were ready to go, and I did not want you to go to the rainbow bridge hating me for pulling you about and just delaying the inevitable while doing it. We sat up with you until 5am, where you gave us some lovely cuddles, before you asked to be put back to your bed with your cage mates. As soon as we put you in the cage, they all came up to see you, and cuddle round, and we knew then that you would not be with us when we came back down later.
In your life, you met and survived these 20 other ferrets, Wispa, Twirl, Ruffle, After Eight, Aero, Curly, Wurly, Ripple, Revel, Chomp, Galaxy, Minstrel, Toblerone, Megan, Snowy, Flyte, Reject, Picnic, Caramel, Poppet, and Toffee
You also met, and leave these 11 guys to miss you. Topic, Bourneville, Mars, Black Magic, Kit, Kat, Chewit, Lion, Sherbet, Humbug, and Peanut.
Sweet dreams Snicker I hope what they say about the bridge is true, and you are now there, in your former glory, all mended, and able to play like you always used to, with all those 20 cage mates that you have seen both come and go in your life here.
You were a gentleman to the end.
