A Life of Adventure

The Story of Neptune
Today was a hair raising day. Our ferret, Neptune, had an operation to remove a rather large tumor from his adrenal gland. Neptune was the first pet that Todd and I ever bought together. I vividly remember the night we bought him. We went to a pet store in a mall near by because we like to go in and play with the puppies. There weren't any "good" puppies to play with, so we wandered around in the store and stumbled on the ferret cage, and decided to play with one of those.

The first ferret we took into the playroom was a biter. I felt like a rawhide chew toy after the 2 minute visit with this guy. We went back to the ferret cage and saw a very mellow ferret sitting in the corner. So we thought we'd try our luck with him.

This ferret was very friendly, and seemed to love being handled by humans. Todd said "Let's get him."

"Todd, we don't know anything about ferrets. How much care do they need? Do we have time for an animal? What the heck do we know about ferrets? Let's buy a book on them, read it, and sit on this for a few days. We can't just buy an animal on a whim."

We went to the car, and began to drive out of the parking lot when I said, "I know! We can name him Neptune!" The car somehow seemed to make a U turn, and we ended up at the pet store, with a ferret in a box, a cage, the whole 9 yards.

On the way home on the highway, while Todd drove, I took little Neptune out to play with him. After a few minutes he pooped on my lap "AAAAHHHHHH!!! HE POOPED ON MY LAP!!! AAAAHHHHH!!!!" Todd hurriedly pulled the car over to help me clean the poo off of my lap. I dropped him back into the flimsy cardboard carrier that the pet store gave us that I'd left opened on my lap. Then seconds later bellowed "AAAAHHHHH!!!! NOW HE'S PEEING!!! AAAAAHHH!!!" Of course the flimsy cardboard carrier did not at all contain the pee, which also ended up on my lap. Lovely.

Neptune was 8 weeks old when we brought him home. A month later we decided he desperately needed someone else to play with. Someone not human that wouldn't mind getting chewed on, which apparently is a popular ferret game. Then we brought Sylvia home, and the two have been together ever since. They sleep in a pile of fur, paws, and snouts, and it looks like the most comfortable and cuddly way to sleep.

Neptune is 5 now, almost 6; today's surgery was scary for us. Our first pet was in danger, and all day long I watched the clock slowly tick by while I waited for word from the surgeon. He pulled through the surgery, and he will need some shots to support the functioning of his left adrenal gland, as the right one was removed today.

Here are some pictures we took of Neptune this morning. I am so relieved that on Saturday when he comes home I'll get to see more than a picture of Neptune.