Today is a sad day at our home.  Our pet ferret, Shenanigans, passed away last night.

Nick bought Shenanigans for me (along with his “brother” Shady) as a Christmas gift back in 2002.  Shady passed away several years ago of lymphoma cancer.  Shenanigans, though, lived to be quite a ripe old age.  Neither ferret was young when we got them, ‘Nanners had been with us for six years, so I’m guessing he was around 10 years old.

I was really very attached to Shenanigans.  He always had a very different personality than Shady, or the ferret I adopted 2 years ago (Bink).  ‘Nanners always had this endearing “grumpy old man” sort of personality.  He was happy to do his own thing most of the time, but when he grew bored he also loved to be cuddled.  He was my baby.  Shady and Bink always favored Nick, but ‘Nanners and I bonded.

I sort of knew he was getting to be an old man.  In the last year or so, he had really slowed down a lot.  He also started to lose some weight.  (Though he’d always been rather overweight, so that wasn’t necessarily a bad thing.)  The last few days he’d been very sluggish and I had an appointment to take him to the vet this afternoon.  Unfortunately it was too late.  I’m glad I spent the last few evenings cuddling him in my arms and saying my “goodbyes”.  I hope he knows how much we loved him and enjoyed his time with us.

I’m also glad, in a way, that it didn’t come down to taking him to the vet and having a long, drawn-out treatment.  When Shady had lymphoma, I spent the last week of his life force-feeding him medicines.  It was miserable and after that experience I decided I wouldn’t do that again; it would have been kinder to have him put to sleep.  I’m thankful that I didn’t have to make that call with Shenanigans.

Later this afternoon a very kind gentleman from South Central Pet Services is coming to pick up Shenanigan’s body.  I’ve decided to have him cremeated and have his remains put in a nice wooden urn.  He was so special to me, I couldn’t bear the thought of burying him at our apartment complex and then leaving him behind when we move.

So tonight will be difficult.  Getting through work today has been tuff, trying not to cry — I don’t want to have to explain that I’m crying over a ferret.  Most people don’t “get” that ferrets are more like dogs or cats, not a goldfish you just flush.  I’m truly heartbroken over my little man being gone.  I just want go go home and hold Bink-baby close.  (And our dog and our cat too.)

Goodbye, sweet Shenanigans.  Mommy loves you so much.

(Photos © Erica Bickel)

As you’ve probably guessed, I’m back from my trip home to Pennsylvania now.  The week still wasn’t long enough, but it never really is.  I’ll post some more photos later, but here are a couple of my favorites from my visit:

I got to see so many of my friends and family members while I was home.  It was really great.  In particular, I got to spend a lot of time with my grandparents, which was the real reason for my trip — I just felt like I needed to see them.

As I’m typing this, my mom is on her way here to Nashville.  She left (driving) this morning and should be here around 9:30 p.m. tonight!  I’m so excited.  It made it much easier to say goodbye last weekend, knowing that she’d be here this week!  We’re going to the AQS quilt show tomorrow at the Opryland Hotel.  I’m also thinking if she’s interested that I might bring her in to my work and into the capitol building and stuff.  I think she might like that.

Next weekend Nick’s parents will be staying with us, and the weekend after that my friend Melanie may be flying in to stay with us too… so we have a steady stream of loved ones visiting over the next week, which is great.  The house isn’t exactly as orderly and neat as I’d like it to be for company, but oh well, they’re family.  They may as well know now that I’m no June Cleaver.  ;)  (Though I do try.)

Hopefully I’ll get my butt in gear and get some new pictures posted soon.  Really.  I promise!

I just printed my boarding passes online, so I guess there’s no turning back!  (Not that I’d want to anyway.)  I’m flying home to Erie, PA tomorrow!  I’m excited.

I’m also nervous — just about the flying part.  Up till yesterday, I was excited — picking out books and knitting projects to take with me to pass the time on the plane and during the layover in Detroit.  But now that I have boarding passes in-hand, the nervousness has hit and my stomach is in knots.  This will only be my second time flying, and though I did just fine the first time, it still freaks me out.  The only reason I’m flying at all is because I felt like I needed to go home for a little while, and Nick wasn’t able to come so I didn’t want to drive the 11+ hours alone.  Anywhere else though?  Forget it.  My need to go home just outweighed my dislike of flying.

I packed most of my things last night.  I’m flying Northwest and they allow for one checked bag for free, plus your carry on.  I’m just taking one suitcase, and even with a good amount of clothing packed, there’s still lots of room in case I do any shopping while I’m home.  Of course, I packed lots of yarn and knitting things in both my carry on and my checked luggage (I might need more knitting to do on the flight home, ya know!).  I think I packed enough yarn and patterns to knit 3 or 4 pairs of socks, which is highly unlikely — if I get through 2 pair, I’ll be surprised — but knitting is the one thing that calms my nerves.  Those security people at the airport better not try and take my knitting needles away or I’ll be a wreck… (I did pack a book in case, though.)

Anyway, tomorrow night I’ll be having dinner at my parents’ house.  My mom is making stuffed shells.  My mother- and father-in-law, and my grandparents will all be there.  It should be nice.  After spending the better part of the day in airports, I’m not entirely sure how coherent I’ll be, but I’m sure they’ll understand.  Oh!  And I’ll get to see my good old Kodi-dogger too.

I’m going to make an effort to take lots of pictures.  I’m just packing my little point-and-shoot camera, not my fancy dSLR.  But I’ll try to take enough pictures with family and friends so that I can post a nice little photo album of the trip in the photo gallery when I get back.

Wish me luck and think good thoughts for my flights tomorrow, please!  (No turbulence! *fingers crossed*)  See ya’ll soon!