Humbug arrived on the 22 of March 2019, as a result of being handed in to a local vet, and them asking us to take him. He was in a real state when he arrived, very tiny, thin (dangerously), covered in fleas and ticks, full on in smelly season, rotten teeth, missing patches of fur, and only ½ an ear lobe overall. To be honest, we were not sure if he would live very long, as he looked like a very old ferret totally on his last legs.
The first problem was, we had 2 young jills, who were full of potential raging hormones, and he would not leave them alone. In fact, he was a bit of a monster to all the Jills, and would argue with the other hobs, even though they were all twice his size, half or less of his age, and fit as fiddles.
With us though, he was as soft as butter, although, he was a fiend with feet, so basically just like other ferrets.
The next problem was the teeth, we were not sure he was strong enough to face surgery, but bad teeth made it hard to get food into him. My soup, plus RC convalescence became his friend, along with softened food, but by the 4th day, with a small amount of progress, we decided that if we wanted him to survive, we needed to take the bull by the horn, and put him in for the teeth to be done, and at the same time, have him neutered, then pray like mad he was strong enough to cope with it.
A big step, but the vets agreed it was probably the best way forward. At this point, everyone who had seen him, decided he was 5 or 6 years old, so age was always going to be the most significant factor anyway.
As he got over his surgery, he was still being boisterous with the other ferrets, and what ensued was a very funny exchange. If you have seen "How to train your dragon", Bourneville is just like the dragon, Toothless, in fact, if I had seen the film before we got Bourneville, it would have been his name. In the film, when Toothless is in a fight, one of his strengths is he basically moves so fast and fires a supersonic screaming lightning bolt that hits his aggressor before they even know he is there... Bonny, who had not bothered to get involved with the autications up to now, decided he had had enough. Humbug was getting a bit carried away with the kits, made them cry, and suddenly, out of nowhere Bourneville flew in, with an almighty scream, and had him by the neck, shook him and was gone. Humbug had no idea what had got him, and naturally assumed it must have been one of the kits. After the second go, with him again not seeing Bourneville, he suddenly had a lot more respect for them, and acted a lot more like a gentleman.
Once his teeth, etc were sorted, he gained a 1/3rd of his weight in a week and started on his road to being a “Lazy-Ferret”, which given his age, he settled into very well, loving finding places to cuddle up with his new found friends.
He settled in, and was a very docile boy, who when he wasn’t sound asleep, liked a small play, that would wind him up, causing him to rush around like a mad thing, then go back to bed. He was a demon for treats and seemed to always be there if they were being handed out. One thing with Humbug, he knew “starving”, and now he was never going be starving again!
Unfortunately, after just over a year of him being with us, we discovered a lump… We took him to the vets, and after tests, it was found to be lymphoma. They said the way it had progressed between the vet visits, it was aggressive, and he probably only had a couple of weeks left to enjoy, so spoil him rotten.
Luckily, Humbug liked it here, all the food he could eat, friends to cuddle up with, and plenty of place to explore, so was not in a hurry to leave, and managed to live for another 16 months. Having said that, he did have a very lucky break, as the Steroids he was on becoame totally impossible to buy for about 4 weeks over Christmas, and since that was all that was keeping him alive, we thought that was going to be the end, but luckily a gardian angel, in the name of "Ken", was able to get some to us, which managed to tide us over until the they became available again.
We noticed he was getting a bit “out of it” lately, things like, not making it to the litter tray, then wandering around like he was totally lost, and then there was the “not wanting treats” which was definitely not Humbug like. The other night, he actually asked Suz for a cuddle, wrapped around her hand, and pulled it in tightly, falling asleep there for ages, until he suddenly needed the loo. This was also not “normal” Humbug, and it did set the alarm bells ringing.
The next morning, he did not want his medicine (very not Humbug), and was acting even more strange. We knew this was not a good sign, but we had to go out, so we made sure there was plenty of bedding down for him and left him in the company of his friends.
When we got back, we found he had decided to go out into the run, and we found him just lying on the concrete floor, cold. We took him in, and realising he was not actually dead, got the heated pad out, plus a fleece, and cuddled him, warming him up. We took turns snuggling him for a couple of hours, but he had gone into a coma, and just laid there “hopefully” being comforted in our arms, being stroked.
Humbug was always very self-conscious of his missing ears, and it was a very long time before he would even let us touch them to clean them, let alone just scratch them, and as a result, he never seemed to enjoy head rubs like the other ferrets do. Subconsciously, while cuddling him, I started gently rubbing his head, and behind his ears, and I felt him relax right into it. Then after a few minutes, I realised he had gone.
Humbug, we always knew we had you on borrowed time, and then with the lymphoma, this was re-affirmed, but we had 2 and a half years, and gave you the best life we could. I hope our kindness more than made up for what ever it was you went through before you came to us from the wicked people who made you so scared and cut off your ears.
Sweet dreams little one, have a ball at the rainbow bridge, reunited with your ears, and also re-united with the likes of Topic, and the others who found you were nice and warm to cuddle up with once they got to know you.
This last picture was taken the day before he passed away. In the morning, I get the sleeping ferrets out from under our bed, and arange them in a mosaic, take a picture, then post it up on Twitter. Humbug was in most of the Mosaics, often buried under all the others, but this was his last picture.
