Thanks BichÃn, thanks for making our lives more joyful, for making us become better people, for teaching us that it is possible to love until feeling exhausted a creature of hardly half a kilo weight. Thanks for showing us that love for animals can be as big or more than the one we profess for human beings (animals as well at the end).
Bicho was a 4 years old ferret. With less than a year, he caught a "queratitis" in one eye, probably due to the many bumps during his frequent play times. Ferrets have not very good sight, they live in burrows, so loosing the sight in one eye was never a big problem for him.
When he was 2 years old, he had a very serious health problem that made him stop feeding himself, reaching a point in which we became afraid for his life.
Despite all our efforts and of the veterinarians, this unknown illness did not completely heal. Even so, Bicho recovered almost completely, but he stopped feeding by himself as usually.
For more than a year we fed him with raw egg using a syringe several times a day, and he regain a great part of his vitality. He continued giving us adorable moments, always willing to "ferret" by every corner, have a walk in the country, or hide a piece of food. But watermelon, he never lost the occasion for a pice, even until his last breathe he found the strenght to have a mouthful of some watermelon pieces, he took with himself a tasty and refreshing sensation with him.
He left us yesterday. He left in peace, almosth without being aware, although he was trying to tell us that somehow he knew the end was near, without understanding what was happening to him and why. We took him to the veterinarian a week ago, and told us that his condition was seriously worrying. He had some red spots all around his small body (bad coagulation due to lack of platelets), caused by a terrible anemia, and he had lost some hair in his tail and part of the body. However, he proudly kept great part of his vitality, diminished since a few years ago. His old sickness seemed to be reemerging with atrocious voracity, devouring his sweet little body. The day before, we took him for a blood transfussion of another ferret (many people offered their ferrets as blood donors, we will never be able to thank them enough for it), with the uncertain hope that bicho could recover part of his health and keep on fighting, while the veterinarians tried to find out the cause of his inexorable deterioration.
The day after the transfusion he started to deteriorate dramatically fast, he could hardly stand up to take care of his basic necesities, almost unable to do his bussiness by himself. The transfusion did not have the expected effect, he was so weak that it has speed up the course of events.
Already with almost no hope, we continued giving him his medication. Her partner, practically mother, Raquel, the one who brought him to my life (never able to thank her enough for it), was with him every moment, helping him to do his basic necessities as he hardly could do them himself, washing him and caring him with no end, until at 4:00 AM Bicho decided, it was enough. He was always very bright, and stubborn, and because of it, and despite of it he did not wanted to make us suffer any more, and so he left with his last breath. Tears flooded over his precious body, already calm, in peace. We would have given anything to have him among us a little bit longer, an infinite instant, but he made the most wise decision.
We buried him surrounded by flowers and that he liked most, currants and a few piceces of watermelon. Currently other flowers grow over him, who generous offers himself to them so they grow splendid.
Our loved Bicho has not left without course, but his is on his way to the rainbow, where all ferrets find shelter after they leave us, so they can be completely themselves, do everything their own way and bite lovingly one another as they like, as we show them not to do with us. Wherever you see the rainbow, Bicho will be there. We will not hear again your jingle bell, that was always a happy announcement of you kindly asking for a little bit of attention, and maybe a piece of fruit, and pampering, tons of pampering. How loving you were, you had a heart greater that all your body.
Thanks Bicho for showing us a priceless lesson, the lesson of love to other animals, the joy of giving everything for a creatures so similar to us, although some refuse to admit it. Inteligent creatures, grateful, that give us so much demanding almost nothing, but the more we give them, the more they give us in return, multiplied by 100.
How will we be able to thank you for showing us the value of sacrifice made with great joy, for giving us a reason to carry on, destroying our egoism. Thansk for making us more human, and better people, for teaching us that happiness is inside us, but needs to go outside and impregnate other creatures in order to grow and develope, for showing us that it is possible to love all non human animals far beyond what is measurable or rational. We wish wherever your are there are big watermelons estensions and chocolate houses, that you can eat with no care. You don’t already need us, you have been happy through adversity, we know it because you made us so happy as well.
We will remember you for ever.
Abel and Raquel