Jubilee

We paid $50 to get her out of a horrible situation at a petstore. They should have paid us to take her; within the next month, we paid over $500 in vet bills for her. She had adrenal surgery two weeks after we brought her home, and she also had to be treated for heliobacter mustelae.

During the sixteen months we had her, my poor sweet baby had to deal with quite a few health problems. She had to take antibiotics for vaginitis, and she got heat stroke in July 2006 when our air conditioning went out. Then she and two of our other ferrets went on "vacation" at a ferret shelter for a while when we were having financial problems. This didn't seem to faze her at all, in fact I think she liked it there with Jean spoiling her with fancy duck soup (far superior to mere chicken baby food, don't ya know).

After a while it became clear that the adrenal surgery didn't get all of the tumor, so she went on lupron shots. She started slowing down, and had numerous blood glucose tests. In March of 2007, we took her in for yet another glucose test. She had a fasting glucose level of 78, and minutes later had a seizure.

We thought for sure we were looking at insulinoma...but a few weeks later I went to check on her and found that she was gone. Our vet did a necropsy, and found tumors on various organs, including her pancreas. So her insulinoma symptoms were in fact caused by lymphoma tumors.

I don't know if she had a good life before us. Probably not, because no one good would have abandoned a poor old lady in a horrible petstore like that. But she had a good life and was happy with us. I still remember how she acted the first time we let her out to play. She wardanced so hard that she bashed her head into the wall three or four times! After her surgery, she loved to fall asleep under a blanket on our laps. She loved blankets, period. And hammocks, sleepsacks, hanging cubes...you name it! Her #1 favorite sleeping spot ever was a fluffy white cat tunnel. In her last few months, I never had trouble finding her at the end of playtime, because she'd be in that tube. Before her surgery she hated our other ferrets and would literally attack their ears...after her surgery, she calmed down and came to adore our other ferrets. Her favorite was I think Scooter, a sweet old boy who just loved to clean her ears for her and snuggle with her while she slept. I think the only thing she ever really hated at our house was cats. She aimed for their eyes before her surgery, and afterwards would chase them screaming around the room with her tail poofed out. We tried to keep them separated, for her sake as well as theirs.

She was my best eater. She would eat anything. A good thing too, after all the times we had to feed her chicken baby food/soupies when she was sick. For her last few weeks, she got special food a few times a day. She loved that. My favorite memory of her last few weeks is the way she would wipe her face all over my shirt when she was done eating. She would also help me out if I tried to wipe her off with a napkin.

She was such a dollbaby. I miss her so much. I wish I could write a better memorial for her. Nothing I have said here comes even close to showing how wonderful she was.

Jubilee.

We have no idea how old she was. Our vet said six years minimum, maybe as many as eight.

She came to live with us on November 28, 2005. She left us on March 29, 2007. That is sixteen months and a day that she gave to us. At least a year more than we honestly expected when we first brought her home - but yet not anywhere near long enough.

Dance on at the bridge, Jubie jubes.