Bye bye Joey

It's very difficult when a pet dies - especially if you love that pet like a member of your family.  Even worse is when you have to make the difficult decision to end its life.  

I never thought that I would become so strongly attached to an animal that I could identify with that feeling of loss - but for a sweet little ferret named Lucy.  I certainly never imagined I would bond with a weasel!

Lucy was a part of our family for almost 8 years (which is a long life span in the ferret world) before she got so frail that we finally had to let her go.  She almost died as a young kit after she ingested a glow-in-the-dark rubber worm.  I'm sure she had great fun chewing that thing up!

Lucy loved peanut butter and chocolate (but who doesn't?), leaving fang marks in the toothpaste tube (so I started to get the other kind of dispenser) and would lick the bar of soap.  Never understood that one - something weird must have been lacking in her diet.  Low IQ....but high I-Cute.

She was such a fun little thing!  Finally - there was another female in a household where I had been outnumbered 3-to-1 for years.

She would usually greet me at the door....or maybe she was just trying to escape out the door...but I like to think she was happy to see me.  We would play chase, she would sit up, and she would roll over for her favorite treat of Cheerios.

She loved to lick our eyebrows.  Sounds gross but we think she was trying to groom us like she would one of her own.  We liked to think of it as endearing. 

I awoke one night to the sound of her choking on something and - though not sure how I did it on that tiny little throat - successfully performed a Hershey-Kiss-paper-ectomy.  Told ya she liked chocolate.

One cold snow-less winter night - in stealth-mode - she quietly slipped out the front door.  We were so afraid that she was gone forever - owl-bait for sure.  But as we called her name and vigorously shook the Tupperware container filled with Cheerios - she appeared from around the corner of the house.  Told ya she liked Cheerios.
     
As an adult, Lucy had two of the most common life-threatening diseases that ferrets get.  With medication - she still managed to live a pretty good life.  I think maybe she thought she was a cat and had 9 lives.

It was a very painful decision when we finally accepted that it was time to let her go.  It was new and uncharted territory for all of us.  My son Ryan drove us to the vet and during the drive there - I got the chance to talk to her, cradle her, apologize to her, and tell her goodbye.  Thank you again Ry for being there with me....I wouldn't have handled it without you.

Sometimes I think I can still hear her little collar bell in the distance and expect her to come racing around the corner any moment.  I even continue to step over sorted laundry piles - just in case she might be taking one of her many naps among the dirty socks and t-shirts.  Miss you "little missy".

All of this leads to the actual reason for this post.  My mom is grieving tonight for her little Yorkie named Joey - who was a huge and important part of her life.  She got him after my dad - Joe - passed away in 2005.  Shortly after Joey arrived she welcomed Cindy - a cute little female Yorkie.

Joey had a congenital problem with his trachea - it was abnormally small.  The condition got worse as he got older.  The trachea would collapse and that would affect his ability to breathe - especially when he'd get excited.  And if you know anything about Yorkies - you know how very excitable they are.  When that happened - he would "snort" - but the noise actually came from his throat not his nose.  There was no good surgical option as the vet wasn't sure if a procedure would be successful or that Joey would even survive it.

Today Joey's quality of life took a downward turn and my mom had to make the painful decision to end his suffering.  Little Cindy, who would normally have run around all excited waiting for her turn to be put in the car - seemed to know that something was amiss.  She lay down quietly and let them go without trying to follow.

 I wish Ryan had been there to drive his grandma and Joey to the vet today - then she too would have had the extra time to talk to him, cradle him, apologize to him, and tell him goodbye.

I'm sorry mom that you had to face this today.  I know you are hurting.  I love you.

...It's comforting to know that all dogs (and ferrets) go to heaven.