Ferret Wise is a very busy little place. We have numerous nippers or behavioral "kids", and aging ferrets, but we have a happy ending or two -- it all depends on how you look at things.

BandiTu, one of a group of six ferrets who were displaced due to a divorce, arrived in January. She was 4 1/2 years old and bald from the shoulders back - obviously adrenal disease in progress. In March, she had surgery and the affected left gland was removed but there was skepticism that she may be a bi-lateral adrenal disease candidate. We watched her closely at the shelter for signs of hair regrowth - a few tufts around the base of her tail and then MORE hair loss on her chest.

This little girl with big dark eyes was a pitiful sight coat-wise. Everyone who visited the shelter would step back upon seeing little BandiTu. As we explained the symptoms of adrenal disease, BandiTu would walk up and put her tiny paws on their pant legs looking to be picked up but no one wanted to hold a bald ferret - no one but her shelter mom.

A couple who had adopted a ferret from the shelter several years ago as a companion to their male ferret saw us last fall - their boy was showing signs of adrenal disease - typical hair loss and patterned baldness. In October, he received surgery and pathology revealed a hot cancer of the left gland. He was sent home with a 6-8 month window of time remaining. He regrew his lost hair but was lost this past April to the cancer recurrence. The couple was devastated - this being the loss of their first ferret. Knowing how attached they were, I feared the phone would ring and the other ferrets would venture in. But no calls came...

Then, early in the week (August 2nd), the phone rang late at night. Linda, the mom to the lost adrenal boy, asked if we still had the girl here - ???

(Gosh -- we have lots of them, which one did she mean? I just placed two???)

"Which one?", I asked

"The one I saw with no hair!", she said.

I was speechless. "She most likely has an affected right [adrenal] gland. That means she has only what time the greater being allows", I said.

"Yes, she needs a place to play. We have four here and a cat (gosh, she loves to play with cats-I thought). So, when can she come home?"

Tears filled my weary eyes as I said, "You can come right now - BandiTu is waiting to go home." Now this is a happy ending - one that shelter folks seldom get for their "kids".

Small blessings are wonderful!