Post by Sherry on Jun 21, 2012 21:06:42 GMT -5
This story was supposed to be about just ZEUS. Not Zeus and Athena. But somehow- I can't think of one without the other. They've been together for 5 1/2 years, since they were babies. I honestly don't know what's going to happen in the near future, but we'll cope. Somehow.
Anyway- here's Zeus' story.
September, 2008. As members of the local rescue, FRES I'd received the email letter everyone did about desperately needing new foster homes. Cliff and I discussed it at some length and put in our application. We already had 4 of our own at this point, but were quite sure we could help out with another bonded pair.
FRES came out and did the walk through and we were accepted!!! After talking quite extensively with both Andrea and Sheila it was decided to take in a mild biter to reform since we'd had experience with both Boris and Lucrezia. Shortly before we were to have our two fosters, that really frightening epidemic of I don't know what(a viral strain similar to ECE, but was proving lethal in a matter of hours) occurred, so we put fostering on hold as it was also in Alberta.
January, 2009. We called FRES and let them know we were now ready to accept the new fosters. Zeus and Athena came into our home.
Athena was a "work in progress" as she was the biter. Zeus was a doll from day one
At first they hit it off really well with our four. Athena and Lucrezia got into it the next day, which set off the reason for two playgroups.
Zeus. Oh my! He decided tiny Sinnead was the perfect size to bully and dominate. He scruffed and gator rolled her and before he knew what hit him, she'd reversed the scruff and dragged him from the living room all the way to the kitchen chittering intensely at him all the way. After she deposited him in the kitchen she essentially handed him his butt, ;D then stalked off angrily. He never made that mistake again! Actually, he was slightly terrified of her to the day she passed ;D
He has always been a very loving fuzz, giving kisses liberally whenever asked. He adores and protects his Athena with a vengeance. When they came to us, still on kibble he would bring her a piece at a time, and feed them to her. He was a difficult switch to raw soup, which we could only give a few times a week as they were still officially fosters. However- once we found out these two were going to be the feature fuzz at an adoptathon we both realized we couldn't let them go.
So after calling, and meeting with FRES we formalized their adoption. They became "ours". I say "ours"- but they are both most definitely Cliff's babies
They both bonded far more strongly with him than with me, and that's ok too
His favourite toys by far were the skineeze. These he'd move from stash spot to stash spot, and that was ONE thing he was not willing to share with his Athena ;D Since Vincent was out on the opposite playtime, and he ALSO had the same attitude about HIS skineeze, the behaviour from both was so funny. First thing Zeus would do would be to check his stash spots for HIS skineeze, find they were gone, and search frantically until he found all his favourites, and hide them again ;D
On kibble, as most are then, he'd play for an hour or so then crash. But once on the raw- WOW! He became a wee energizer bunny ;D He'd be up trundling around long after Athena had crashed. Speaking of bunnies- my favourite video of him is where I'd thawed the rabbit for their meal, and just tossed the fully furred carcass on the floor for the two of them. Remember I'd mentioned he used to bring her bits of kibble and feed her? With the raw- especially that rabbit- all bets were now off ;D ;D ;D
Athena on one end, Zeus on the others, hissing for all they were worth. She trying to drag it UP the stairs, he trying to drag it into the living room! He finally won, and I was barely able to grab it before it disappeared under the sofa
Zeus was diagnosed adrenal about 5 months after he came into the house. Typical hairloss and sexual aggression. The lupron helped tremendously. However, about 2-3 days before his next lupron was due the previous one would wear off. These were the times some sexual aggression would break through. However- the WAY he did it was also funny. He knew better than to try anything with Athena when she was awake, so he would actually wait until she was sound asleep, sneak into the hammock or sleepy sack with her, and make an attempt. We knew this because of how she'd start screaming at him until she chased him away and he'd come slinking back out of where ever they'd been, looking very abashed, and curl up and sleep by himself that night ;D
Last June we thought we were going to lose him soon, as he was slowing down, and in spite of the lupron the hair loss started up again with a vengeance. So we checked into getting another ferret for Athena to hopefully bond with to help her with her best friend's passing when it occured. Mr. Frodo came into the picture. He tolerated both Athena's sneak attacks, and Zeus' attempt to dominate with great aplomb. He just ignored what they were doing since he was twice their size ;D
Poor Zeus! He tried two or three times to gator roll this 4lb boy and Frodo literally just shook him off. Zeus just stood there staring in disbelief.
I really wish it had worked with them and Frodo, but those two were so tightly bonded that they both made the decision to simply ignore Frodo. If he came into a room, they went out. If they entered the space were he was, they both turned and left. We tried getting them playing group games like towel drag(which they all loved), and if they were playing and he tried to join in- they stopped immediately and left. If Frodo was playing first, they refused to.
After a month of them refusing any sort of interaction, we came to the realization they neither needed nor wanted anyone in their world of two.
About three months ago Zeus' lupron simply quit working. Even a double dose had no effect. It looked like he was ready to cross the bridge and we were going to make his appointment. Someone on the forum here suggested trying a low dose of pred. As a last ditch effort we did. And within 3 days, we had our boy back again
We went to see the vet about 2 weeks ago, as we needed a refill on the pred. She agreed he in no way, shape, or form was ready to cross. Then she picked him up and gave him a quick check over. It was the look on her face that told me something was very seriously wrong. I heard the words "I am so very, very sorry. I hate this part of my job". Then she showed me that what I though was just an enlarged spleen which is normal with adrenal was actually a mass the size of a tangerine. We went home with a drastically increased dose of pred, and some pain killers if he needed them.
The increase in pred did amazing things for him for about a week. He was displaying absolutely NO signs of pain. Then one day he slept. That was it. He had no interest in anything, including his food so I gave him a painkiller and it worked. Now we were at a crossroads. Do we continue with the once a day painkillers since he was enjoying his life and being a ferret, or did we help him cross then? We made the decision to let him go on being a ferret with the help of pain management. It worked for about 5 days. He needed an increase, which we did and it was good for a couple of days. Yesterday, he let us know he was ready. He was TIRED. So- we made his appointment to cross to the bridge.
Zeus crossed the bridge very peacefully tonight at 6pm.
Anyway- here's Zeus' story.
September, 2008. As members of the local rescue, FRES I'd received the email letter everyone did about desperately needing new foster homes. Cliff and I discussed it at some length and put in our application. We already had 4 of our own at this point, but were quite sure we could help out with another bonded pair.
FRES came out and did the walk through and we were accepted!!! After talking quite extensively with both Andrea and Sheila it was decided to take in a mild biter to reform since we'd had experience with both Boris and Lucrezia. Shortly before we were to have our two fosters, that really frightening epidemic of I don't know what(a viral strain similar to ECE, but was proving lethal in a matter of hours) occurred, so we put fostering on hold as it was also in Alberta.
January, 2009. We called FRES and let them know we were now ready to accept the new fosters. Zeus and Athena came into our home.
Athena was a "work in progress" as she was the biter. Zeus was a doll from day one
At first they hit it off really well with our four. Athena and Lucrezia got into it the next day, which set off the reason for two playgroups.Zeus. Oh my! He decided tiny Sinnead was the perfect size to bully and dominate. He scruffed and gator rolled her and before he knew what hit him, she'd reversed the scruff and dragged him from the living room all the way to the kitchen chittering intensely at him all the way. After she deposited him in the kitchen she essentially handed him his butt, ;D then stalked off angrily. He never made that mistake again! Actually, he was slightly terrified of her to the day she passed ;D
He has always been a very loving fuzz, giving kisses liberally whenever asked. He adores and protects his Athena with a vengeance. When they came to us, still on kibble he would bring her a piece at a time, and feed them to her. He was a difficult switch to raw soup, which we could only give a few times a week as they were still officially fosters. However- once we found out these two were going to be the feature fuzz at an adoptathon we both realized we couldn't let them go.
So after calling, and meeting with FRES we formalized their adoption. They became "ours". I say "ours"- but they are both most definitely Cliff's babies
They both bonded far more strongly with him than with me, and that's ok too His favourite toys by far were the skineeze. These he'd move from stash spot to stash spot, and that was ONE thing he was not willing to share with his Athena ;D Since Vincent was out on the opposite playtime, and he ALSO had the same attitude about HIS skineeze, the behaviour from both was so funny. First thing Zeus would do would be to check his stash spots for HIS skineeze, find they were gone, and search frantically until he found all his favourites, and hide them again ;D
On kibble, as most are then, he'd play for an hour or so then crash. But once on the raw- WOW! He became a wee energizer bunny ;D He'd be up trundling around long after Athena had crashed. Speaking of bunnies- my favourite video of him is where I'd thawed the rabbit for their meal, and just tossed the fully furred carcass on the floor for the two of them. Remember I'd mentioned he used to bring her bits of kibble and feed her? With the raw- especially that rabbit- all bets were now off ;D ;D ;D
Athena on one end, Zeus on the others, hissing for all they were worth. She trying to drag it UP the stairs, he trying to drag it into the living room! He finally won, and I was barely able to grab it before it disappeared under the sofa
Zeus was diagnosed adrenal about 5 months after he came into the house. Typical hairloss and sexual aggression. The lupron helped tremendously. However, about 2-3 days before his next lupron was due the previous one would wear off. These were the times some sexual aggression would break through. However- the WAY he did it was also funny. He knew better than to try anything with Athena when she was awake, so he would actually wait until she was sound asleep, sneak into the hammock or sleepy sack with her, and make an attempt. We knew this because of how she'd start screaming at him until she chased him away and he'd come slinking back out of where ever they'd been, looking very abashed, and curl up and sleep by himself that night ;D
Last June we thought we were going to lose him soon, as he was slowing down, and in spite of the lupron the hair loss started up again with a vengeance. So we checked into getting another ferret for Athena to hopefully bond with to help her with her best friend's passing when it occured. Mr. Frodo came into the picture. He tolerated both Athena's sneak attacks, and Zeus' attempt to dominate with great aplomb. He just ignored what they were doing since he was twice their size ;D
Poor Zeus! He tried two or three times to gator roll this 4lb boy and Frodo literally just shook him off. Zeus just stood there staring in disbelief.
I really wish it had worked with them and Frodo, but those two were so tightly bonded that they both made the decision to simply ignore Frodo. If he came into a room, they went out. If they entered the space were he was, they both turned and left. We tried getting them playing group games like towel drag(which they all loved), and if they were playing and he tried to join in- they stopped immediately and left. If Frodo was playing first, they refused to.
After a month of them refusing any sort of interaction, we came to the realization they neither needed nor wanted anyone in their world of two.
About three months ago Zeus' lupron simply quit working. Even a double dose had no effect. It looked like he was ready to cross the bridge and we were going to make his appointment. Someone on the forum here suggested trying a low dose of pred. As a last ditch effort we did. And within 3 days, we had our boy back again
We went to see the vet about 2 weeks ago, as we needed a refill on the pred. She agreed he in no way, shape, or form was ready to cross. Then she picked him up and gave him a quick check over. It was the look on her face that told me something was very seriously wrong. I heard the words "I am so very, very sorry. I hate this part of my job". Then she showed me that what I though was just an enlarged spleen which is normal with adrenal was actually a mass the size of a tangerine. We went home with a drastically increased dose of pred, and some pain killers if he needed them.
The increase in pred did amazing things for him for about a week. He was displaying absolutely NO signs of pain. Then one day he slept. That was it. He had no interest in anything, including his food so I gave him a painkiller and it worked. Now we were at a crossroads. Do we continue with the once a day painkillers since he was enjoying his life and being a ferret, or did we help him cross then? We made the decision to let him go on being a ferret with the help of pain management. It worked for about 5 days. He needed an increase, which we did and it was good for a couple of days. Yesterday, he let us know he was ready. He was TIRED. So- we made his appointment to cross to the bridge.
Zeus crossed the bridge very peacefully tonight at 6pm.
how are you holding up ? Hows Athena doing ?
I hate the decision it's the worst part about being a pet owner 
DIP Zeus 
