Posted: June 13, 2008, 5 a.m. EDT
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Photo Courtesy of Mindy
Noodle was diagnosed with insulinoma. |
He looked more like an opossum than a baby ferret the day we first met, and he defiantly showed us he was not pleased at being taken away from his “home,” the pet store. Our relatives, who lived next door, were his first owners and completely new to the world of ferrets. He was a little stinker with a huge head, tiny body and big, clumsy paws. Maybe he was biting me because I couldn’t stop laughing at him.
The nameless critter was soon handed to us. My husband and I got him acquainted with our older ferret, Sabrina. She was smaller than the new guy and always such a quiet girl, but we quickly found out that she had a very low tolerance to this new ferret. He was an annoyance but very lovable.
As we were trying to come up with a name for him, I was driving home from work and wanted chicken noodle soup as a snack (yes, I’m pretty weird myself) it all clicked – Noodle. It really did fit him.
Five years later on an August morning, I noticed Noodle was very lethargic in his cage and that he was salivating quite heavily. The vet’s office was closed, so I called an emergency hotline where another vet returned my call and gave us instructions to help Noodle. We thought giving him Karo syrup would make him good as new but that wasn’t the case after all. After a trip to our vet’s office, Noodle was diagnosed with insulinoma.
Almost a year after the diagnosis, things have changed but not our love for him. Once upon a time, I didn’t even like ferrets, but our critters changed my mind. There’s something about a ferret that stays with you for the rest of your life.
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