Smegol

by Nikki
(Riverside, New Jersey, USA)

I found Smegol while driving around my area. She was being chased by a cat. I stopped and picked her up after some coaxing and took her home.

The next day my sister bought a kit for me for the ferret to sleep in. I had never been around a ferret before, and I wasn’t sure if that’s what she was until my family verified it. Up until about a month before she died, I didn’t even know she was a girl. I was calling her – him and his.

She was very sweet, but very independent. She didn’t have as much energy as some of the ferrets I have now, but she got around. I would often find her in my beat up couch (I had my own domain set up in my mother’s basement as a teenager), of 3 drawers up into my dresser, huddled in my t-shirts or bed clothes.

After a few months she was given a playmate which we named Jinx. After about a month of “tolerating” the baby, Smegol had a seizure and we rushed her to the vet.

The vet said that she had an insulin tumor and unless we had 5 grand for an operation she was going to have to be put down.

Unfortunately we didn’t even have enough for the exam charge, so she had to be put down. The staff were sympathetic toward us and took what money we had and let it cover the exam, the drugs and the cremation without ashes.

We said goodbye and we left, empty handed, broke, and completely heartbroken. That experience is something I’ll never forget and I learned a lot from it.

I’ll always remember Smegol, she makes my heart warm when I think about her.