Post by Zoshi on Apr 20, 2010 22:36:05 GMT -5
(I apologize for the large amount of pictures)
Since I didn't make a post about Pike's passing last year after I joined, I decided to do a tribute post this year on the first anniversary.
*Our digital camera was so horrible back then! D: *
Pike was found by my mother and I in March of 2004, on the sidewalk on a street in Chicago. I was going to get my ID so I could apply for a passport, and we had gotten off at the wrong stop and had to walk a few blocks to get to the station where I could get my ID. We found him, I took off my hoodie to wrap him up in, and my mother sat outside the station with him snoozing in the hoodie in her arms while I took care of my ID business. Afterwards we went around to nearby houses and asked if anyone had lost a ferret. No one knew anything. We left our info at a nearby vet's office (that told me to give him carrots to eat!) we went home. With the ferret hidden in my hoodie. On the bus.
Yes, I smuggled a ferret onto public transportation without a carrier. He slept the whole way home, so I think we got lucky. xD
Pike quickly made himself at home. For five years he was a wonderful ferret, probably the best introduction to ferrets a person could have. We're not sure how old he was when we found him, but he was definitely past the high-energy-youth stage (although he did enjoy knocking things over and getting into things, what ferret doesn't?). He was a snuggler and a kisser, and he bonded very closely with my dad, who loved him like crazy. He'd do anything for that ferret. Pike never bit, had a 98% hit rate for the litterbox, and would come when you called him, even if you didn't have a treat. I trained him to go into the carrier for a treat, and he'd start doing it on his own, just to weasel one out of me.
I'll be honest - we made a lot of mistakes with Pike. Before I got Ferrets for Dummies he was on Kaytee Fiesta ferret food, and one of his favorite treats were the raisins that came along with the ferret treats you can buy at the pet store. I did start researching ferrets, and he was put on a mix of EVO and Totally Ferret, and the raisins were gone from the treat list. We spent a lot of time with him, though, and he more than definitely loved the attention.
Sadly, early 2009 he started drastically dropping in weight, and we took him to the exotic animals vet office, where they ran tests, operated on him and took a biopsy to testing. He was diagnosed with EGE, Insulinoma, and the vet said that his liver was in a horrible state.
He was on five different meds, three that were twice a day, and he was on a soupie diet because of the operation. The vet gave him a week, at most.
Pike had other ideas - a week just seemed way too short for him. He ate and he took his meds and he wandered around my room and he lived on. For the last three months of his life he had his 'suite' set up in my room, was let out to roam whenever he wanted to, and usually spent most of the night sleeping on my lap as I drew or wrote.
When he wasn't sleeping on my lap, he was sleeping in the clean laundry I hadn't put away yet.
Sadly, Pike started to get worse around 2 and a half months after his operation. The medications weren't working, and the vet suspected that the case might not have been the EGE, but his liver shutting down. We're not exactly sure what it was that did it. He lost motor control of his legs and couldn't make it to the litter box, and his body temperature started dropping lower and lower.
Last year, on April 20th, we made the decision to take Pike to the vet and put him to sleep so he wouldn't suffer any longer. We wrapped him in a towel and got into the car and drove to the vet's office. Pike, again, had other plans. We reached the vet's office, and before we got out of the car me and my dad took the last chance to say goodbye privately to Pike. Pike, in turn, lifted his head, took one last look around, put his head back down, and let out a large sigh. He was gone.
He'd lived his whole life on his own terms, and apparently he'd decided it was going to end on his own terms as well.
Looking back, I could see so many things that could have been done different, ways we might have been able to forestall what happened, but everything is easier to 'fix' after the matter has passed.
One thing I do know, is that he was in a house where he was loved by every single person, and that he himself opened many other people's eyes to just how wonderful and loving ferrets could be. He was one ferret in a million, and he'll always be remembered with love and much warmth.
For more pictures of Pike, and Pike with Tikki, you can visit here: www.flickr.com/photos/ferretinsanity/
Since I didn't make a post about Pike's passing last year after I joined, I decided to do a tribute post this year on the first anniversary.
*Our digital camera was so horrible back then! D: *
Pike was found by my mother and I in March of 2004, on the sidewalk on a street in Chicago. I was going to get my ID so I could apply for a passport, and we had gotten off at the wrong stop and had to walk a few blocks to get to the station where I could get my ID. We found him, I took off my hoodie to wrap him up in, and my mother sat outside the station with him snoozing in the hoodie in her arms while I took care of my ID business. Afterwards we went around to nearby houses and asked if anyone had lost a ferret. No one knew anything. We left our info at a nearby vet's office (that told me to give him carrots to eat!) we went home. With the ferret hidden in my hoodie. On the bus.
Yes, I smuggled a ferret onto public transportation without a carrier. He slept the whole way home, so I think we got lucky. xD
Pike quickly made himself at home. For five years he was a wonderful ferret, probably the best introduction to ferrets a person could have. We're not sure how old he was when we found him, but he was definitely past the high-energy-youth stage (although he did enjoy knocking things over and getting into things, what ferret doesn't?). He was a snuggler and a kisser, and he bonded very closely with my dad, who loved him like crazy. He'd do anything for that ferret. Pike never bit, had a 98% hit rate for the litterbox, and would come when you called him, even if you didn't have a treat. I trained him to go into the carrier for a treat, and he'd start doing it on his own, just to weasel one out of me.
I'll be honest - we made a lot of mistakes with Pike. Before I got Ferrets for Dummies he was on Kaytee Fiesta ferret food, and one of his favorite treats were the raisins that came along with the ferret treats you can buy at the pet store. I did start researching ferrets, and he was put on a mix of EVO and Totally Ferret, and the raisins were gone from the treat list. We spent a lot of time with him, though, and he more than definitely loved the attention.
Sadly, early 2009 he started drastically dropping in weight, and we took him to the exotic animals vet office, where they ran tests, operated on him and took a biopsy to testing. He was diagnosed with EGE, Insulinoma, and the vet said that his liver was in a horrible state.
He was on five different meds, three that were twice a day, and he was on a soupie diet because of the operation. The vet gave him a week, at most.
Pike had other ideas - a week just seemed way too short for him. He ate and he took his meds and he wandered around my room and he lived on. For the last three months of his life he had his 'suite' set up in my room, was let out to roam whenever he wanted to, and usually spent most of the night sleeping on my lap as I drew or wrote.
When he wasn't sleeping on my lap, he was sleeping in the clean laundry I hadn't put away yet.
Sadly, Pike started to get worse around 2 and a half months after his operation. The medications weren't working, and the vet suspected that the case might not have been the EGE, but his liver shutting down. We're not exactly sure what it was that did it. He lost motor control of his legs and couldn't make it to the litter box, and his body temperature started dropping lower and lower.
Last year, on April 20th, we made the decision to take Pike to the vet and put him to sleep so he wouldn't suffer any longer. We wrapped him in a towel and got into the car and drove to the vet's office. Pike, again, had other plans. We reached the vet's office, and before we got out of the car me and my dad took the last chance to say goodbye privately to Pike. Pike, in turn, lifted his head, took one last look around, put his head back down, and let out a large sigh. He was gone.
He'd lived his whole life on his own terms, and apparently he'd decided it was going to end on his own terms as well.
Looking back, I could see so many things that could have been done different, ways we might have been able to forestall what happened, but everything is easier to 'fix' after the matter has passed.
One thing I do know, is that he was in a house where he was loved by every single person, and that he himself opened many other people's eyes to just how wonderful and loving ferrets could be. He was one ferret in a million, and he'll always be remembered with love and much warmth.
For more pictures of Pike, and Pike with Tikki, you can visit here: www.flickr.com/photos/ferretinsanity/
