I just lost one of the boys. It is a sad day.

I was planning on driving to Hasselt to visit an international animal happening, where the BFL (Belgian Ferret League) always is present and see if I could help out, but I ended up driving to my vet to have one of the ferrets put to sleep. Fritz - my very first ferret - wasn't too well the last months, slept an awful lot, and when awakened, didn't play too much. He was still eating well, and drinking too, yet he kept loosing weight. Last night I picked him up and decided to make him a nutritional mix of food to see if I could get some more flesh on him again. He liked the mix and ate some. When I checked today, I found him laying on the bottom of the cage, all cramped and dirty. I immediately called the vet and drove off with him. Unfortunately I also realized that it wouldn't be possible to save Fritz anymore.

When I arrived at the vet's place - Joke was the vet on call - she took a look at Fritz and diagnosed quickly. Every sign of kidney defici�ncy was there, and considering that he was nearly 5 years old, there was not much left for us to do. I asked her to put him to sleep. There is no point in keeping one of my ferrets alive, or even trying if everyone realizes that the battle has been lost. Then the only sane choice to make is to help the animal and let him go. It is with very much pain in my heart that I took the descision, but knowing that I saved him a lot of pain and misery, makes it bearable.

I don't know yet how I'm gonna react to this loss, as I know myself. I either react very extreme and go off to look for extreme things to make me cope with the loss, or I put myself over it and realize that there are 3 other boys (Bono, Max and Happy) that depend on my to care for them. I've hugged all three remaining ferrets and they played along while I cleaned and disinfected the cage. They do realize that one is missing, just not completely. I'll have to keep a very close watch on them to see how they handle to loss of their senior ferret.

Note : For those that know me personally and want to send feedback on the loss of Fritz, feel free to do so. However, I would appreciate it if you didn't call me about it in the next few days. Thanks.