After Otto died, to try to regain the social balance and give Lizzie someone to snuggle and Blitzen someone to bite, I knew I'd eventually have to have another boy. So over Labor Day weekend (2002), I drove to Ohio to a private breeder and found Oscar. He was as deaf as Blitzen (although far better tempered), and actually *could* fly very short distances. He never yet decided whether or not he likes to have someone catch him at the end of the trip. He was very intelligent, except about the litterbox, and amazingly gentle (even more amazing for a ferret so young and deaf). We had some problems integrating him, but after sufficient bribery, all was well. Usually.

Soon after Lizzie's adrenal surgery, Oscar forgot he had been neutered when he four months old. Obviously, more adrenal, and into the vet. He had surgery in late May, 2004, and when the vet opened him up she found that both glands were messed up. One was small and black and hard, and gave no reason to believe it was functioning at all. The other was plainly enlarged and diseased in a more recognizable way. Both came out.

Ferrets can sometimes survive without adrenal glands, although they have to be given medication. Oscar's body just couldn't adjust, and we lost him in June. He was only two years old.

April 27, 2002 - June 11, 2004