A Day in the Life of a Zookeeper

A Day in the Life of a Zookeeper
Ever wonder what its like to share your world with a bunch of crazy critters? Tune in to find out!

Tuesday, September 22, 2015

Harlow - July 2014 - September 2015

Yesterday afternoon we made the agonizingly difficult decision to spare our sweet Harlow any further suffering and send her to the rainbow bridge.  The last week had been very difficult for her and there was no prospect for improvement.  Her sweet spirit has been freed from a body that failed her.  For that I am grateful.

Harlow was born on July 8, 2014 and was littermates with Tabitha and Kai.  The three of them came to live with us in November of 2014 and they quickly became a part of our family and captured our hearts. Harlow was a very shy and sweet ferret with a very easy going disposition.  She loved to play with toys and had several toy pile stashes in various places.  In May we got the devastating diagnosis of Ferret FIP (Systemic Coronavirus).

We were fortunate in that with the exception of the last week or so, the last 5ish months had been pretty good for our sweet girl.  She had a period of amazingly good health and even during her slow decline she was active, inquisitive and feeling quite good.  I am so thankful that she got to experience the new house and that we made the decision to put her back with her brothers and sisters.  She spent the last 8 weeks playing and snoozing with her ferret family and she so enjoyed that.

Harlow had an amazing and joyful spirit and even though she was sick she enjoyed her days - a lesson we can all learn from.  While we are heartbroken losing her I am so glad she doesn't have to struggle any longer.  The void left in our days is vast - my interactions with her were frequent - feeding her every few hours, endless hours of cuddle time and play time and ensuring she got her meds two times a day.  I even got up in the middle of the night last night to feed her out of habit.

I take comfort that she is with Clooney, Finn, Nigel and Isabel at the rainbow bridge free of any illness or ailments.  If love could have saved her she would have lived with us forever.... Rest in peace my sweet baby girl.







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