She never learned to eat from me, or from a bowl, but when my mother came over, she wolfed it all down. Only way she ever ate it from me was when fed through a syringe.
They're particular, aren't they?
She also got kind of "pear shaped" and weaker in the rear. Considering her sister just died from tumours in the spleen and things like this is a clear warning sign, we took her to the vet for a checkup.
Squeezing her stomach to feel for irregularities didn't yield any results (but then again, it hadn't a year or so before Natasja died either). Listening to her heart gave another indication, as she has a clearly heard heart murmur.
To find out more, we decided to X-ray her. I got to be assistant as usual. Roxane is rather easy to X-ray, but not so with Alison. She didn't like the room, and especially the noise the machine made before and after taking the image, and got very agitated. I had to wear a lead apron, which made me slightly clumsy, so at one time she actually managed to slip out of my hands, fall on the examination table and then jump down to the floor. In those circumstances, examination in itself is obviously risky.
The X-ray images didn't show any tumours as such, which is good. The heart looked normal too. So we took a contrast image just seconds after having fed her the contrast fluid, and see: It seems like her throat (gorge?) makes a slight bend around the heart, indicating there might be something there, which shouldn't.
But all in all, there's not a whole lot to exactly do, except perhaps give her diet for heart problems. Well, as it's not clear she actually has a heart condition (except from the murmur), we haven't done anything about it.
A few weeks later, she got more active again. Nowadays, it's her and Roxane who's awake first and usually appear together in the morning, when someone comes to visit in the day and so on. Consequently, I take her out together with Roxane a whole lot, and late in the evenings it's nice and cool in gardens, just like early in the morning, which they both likes, but Alison always wants to stay out far longer.
Problem with having Alison out together with one of the others is that she's likely to attack them. Instead of just separating them, nowadays I instead put Alison indoors right away, in the hope she'll learn to stop.
Roxane never fights back, but just keeps barely out of range when chased and sometimes gives her a lot of room at other times. So most of the time, it's three ferrets sleeping in one place, and Alison in another. But from time to time, Roxane will join a sleeping Alison, so hopefully it's not too bad.
Carmen has overall become more "forward" now that Natasja is gone. Previously, you could sometimes see her in my bed, but if I went there, she moved, same if any of the other girls in the family. If she was asleep, she'd wake up withing 15 minutes and move away. Now, she's often in the bed, as long as I can keep Alison from her (they won't fight as easily anywhere else).
Carmen has also gotten more careful with her teeth when kissing than she's ever been before. I've just had to explain to her what hurts and what doesn't. It's still hard to think she'll ever (or anyone else for that matter) become as careful as Natasja, who could nibble on my earlobes forever and get mightlily excited -- but never even coming close to applying too much pressure. (Alison has got two broken teeth, so presumably I can't place as high demands on her.)
Rustan has won some honours this year. First we had a meeting with 1-X-2 questions, and since Rustan was the only one I had brought, his name is on the diploma too.
Recently, we had an agility competition, and he just barely won that one too, so on that diploma he really deserves to be included. I didn't do a whole lot apart from encouraging him, just like I did with Roxane, but she didn't even finish the track in the 5 min max time allotted.
A little girl would be just what Roxane need to play with. But if it's just going to be one more Alison fights with, I don't think she's going to appreciate it.
Decisions, decisions...