In Mourning:

This morning we had to part with a beloved friend. Our eldest ferret, Indy, suffered a stroke or something like a stroke yesterday; when we got home last night Indy was not moving from his neck down. We bathed him and loved on him, and this morning he was still not moving from the neck down. He was also grinding his teeth, which is the probably one of only a few ways that a ferret can tell you he is in pain. We took him to the vet to have him put down. We are getting far too familiar with the very fine folks over at Pender/Eastern Exotics; we had Sheridan in yesterday because he has a torn cornea and a mild infection, and late in May we had to put down Sinclair the great bottle-thief because his many cancerous tumors finally overtook him.

The cage and the house seem a little more empty now. We are missing the fastest racing ferret we have seen, one of the best kissing ferrets yet (Indy in both cases), and the great bottle-thief (Sinclair). Hopefully Leonardo and Sheridan can adjust to the quiet. We are going to experiment with letting them roam more freely to keep them from getting too lonely/bored.