On Vox: A Dragon Sleeps
Our ferret Dragon passed sometime in his sleep last night. We had been expecting it sometime soon. He had adrenal disease for three years now. He is the last of the foster fuzzies and lived to be about 9 years old. Dragon was an albino fert. He was starting to go more downhill a few days ago. He has been hairless for sometime now and slower...but he was playing until a few days ago. I got him in the bathroom alone to watch him for one night. I decided to talk to him. I told him it was ok to go in his sleep and go to that place where there is no pain. That his brothers where there and we would see him again. He just sighed and I told him I had hoped he felt loved enough while with us. I was of course crying and he just licked my face. I held him for sometime talking to him and petting him. He told me that he wanted to go back into the cage with all his buddies. Our other ferrets have been taking care of him ever since he got sick. They would always groom him and cuddle him to keep him warm.
I am glad I got to talk to him and say goodbye. I told him to please make his own decision about when it was time to go. I didn't want to make that decision for him. So this morning I heard Oliver and Sabre fighting. I went into the book room and took a very agitated Oliver out of there. I come back and look into the ferret cage. There is dragon curled up by the doors gone. He probably climbed out of his snuggle hammock and just died. So I wrapped him in a towel. Leon got Seb ready for the babysitters and after dropping the baby off he took me to get Dragon Cremated.
We got three fuzzies as fosters and kept them and all of them died. It seems they died because they all got feed poor quality food, had little out of cage time, and little play time. I hope we gave them a happy life while they lived. We have three ferret ashes to release in the wild. Once we get Dragon's ashes back we plan on setting all three of them free. I know to some it's only an animal and a ferret at that. But to me all life if precious. Animals have personalities and feel. Therefore; I treat them with respect and mourn their passing. Adin and I will be a bit down for a few days. But we know that we gave Dragon, Tyson, and Weediddle a better life then they had before and did the best we could for them. I shall remember them all playing with our own ferrets. Having seven ferrets at Christmas running, dooking, and playing in the wrapping paper. It was one of the best memories I and Adin have. All the animals running amok and playing together. So goodbye our mighty Dragon. We shall see you and the others again.
Originally posted on jennib.vox.com