Memories of Egon - Part 1

It's been six weeks since Egon's passing and we realized we have so many wonderful memories of him, even as we miss him terribly.


He had the most *expressive* jowls, making his facial features nuanced, vivid, animated and so Totally Egon. Happy, curious, frustrated, inquisitive, baffled, confused, excited, angry, determined, playful - Egon could convey them all with just his facial expression and posture - assisted by the longest whiskers I have ever seen on a ferret.


Egon had the softest, most velvety muzzle fur. Every once in a while, he'd let me touch it for more than a few seconds. That's when I understood why Harley liked to snuggle her face up to Egon's when the two of them slept - that must have been the softest, warmest, best spot ever to sleep for her. That and Egon's ferret breath, too!


It's said that "Every weasel needs a hobby". One of Egon's hobbies was bubble wrap. Or, more specifically, the inside of padded envelopes that use bubble wrap as cushioning. He loved padded FedEx envelopes. He'd amuse us to no end as he investigated the envelope inside and out, then took up a strategic position inside, sharpened his claws and then proceeded to *rip*rip*rip*rip*rip*rip* until every single bubble inside the envelope was popped. Then he'd flop on his back and to the same to the other side of the envelope. We thought it was the most amazing thing - one of these ferret fixations, where Egon couldn't and wouldn't stop until the job was done and every single bubble in the envelope had been reduced to a shredded version of its former self.

This was actually one of those ferret fixations where the humans around would get tired of watching him before he got tired of popping bubble wrap.

While he was interested in it, Egon never showed the same kind of behavioral determination with just sheets of bubble wrap than he did with doing it from inside a padded FedEx envelope. Maybe he enjoyed the "burrow-like" feeling inside the envelope, maybe he liked it because it was warm in there, or perhaps he enjoyed the way how being inside the envelope must have amplified the ripping sounds for him.

Since he never ate any of the plastic - and we watched closely for that since one of Egon's other hobbies was eating cloth when he was very young - we figured it couldn't hurt to let him have a FedEx envelope all his own that he could drag into one of his hidey holes under the futon.

Over the next few days we kept hearing the telltale *rip*rip*rip*rip*rip*rip* sounds emanating from underneath the futon quite frequently. Our "awww - isn't that cute" reaction lasted for about as long as it took us to decide to clean up under the futon, where we found one large padded FedEx envelope with its inside bubble wrap literally ripped into thousands, possibly tens of thousands of teeny tiny pieces. Obviously, Egon's goal had never just been popping all of the bubbles in the padding, but the Utter and Complete Destruction of the envelope itself. Much to FedEx's credit, while Egon efficiently destroyed the bubble wrap, the envelope itself remained completely unscathed, with the exception of a few teeth marks that left puncture marks but did in no way threaten the integrity of the envelope.

The clean-up effort involved in retrieving a gazillion tiny plastic pieces from underneath the futon was enough work for the human members of the household that from then on out Egon's hobby of FedEx Envelope Hellionating became a strictly supervised activity. It was a hobby he enjoyed way into his old age, even though we couldn't allow him to exert himself too much during the last few months of his life, as his blood sugar situation was so unstable due to his suffering from insulinoma.

Life without Egon

Life without Egon around is tough. Fortunately, we still have his litter mate Harley Quinn, and even though she is an old lady with adrenal disease, she's a Trooper, trying her best to be there for her humans as we are for her, as we all struggle to fill the void left by Egon's passing on April 24.

I know from losing two ferrets previously - our First Ferret Pixel, and her companion Benito - that it does get easier, but even though we'd known for a year and a half since Egon's diagnosis with insulinoma that his future was uncertain at best, when he finally did pass, it was more difficult than I expected.

We are moving on, of course, but it is precisely the daily routines of our lives without Egon that make us realize just HOW MUCH he'd been a part of our lives every day, how much we shared with him, how many times a day we played with him, held him, cuddled him, scratched his ears and his Special Spot and shared so many things with him, and he with us.

Egon, thank you so much for spending your long life with us and bringing us so much Joy. We will always remember you fondly and you will always hold a special place in our hearts.

RIP Egon

Egon was an amazing ferret. He lived an interesting and remarkably long life. At 8 years and 2 months, he had the average ferret life span of 4-6 years more than beat.

His sister Harley is still with us and we all miss Egon very much. He brought much joy into our lives and we will always remember him fondly.

In his prime he was a LARGE weasel, tipping the scales at almost 4 pounds, with huge feet that he never completely grew into. He was a red-eyed white most of his life, which he started out with a black reverse skunk stripe down his back and a black spot on his left flank. The stripe didn't last much past his first two sheddings, but the spot remained until Egon started losing his hair from insulinoma.

He always had it out for Giovanni.

Giovanni is a stuffed ferret from Ikea and a Household God. Egon hated him. He would have ripped the stuffing out of Giovianni, if we'd let him.

Egon loved weed, which is how he got his nickname "stoner weasel". He INSISTED on bong hits. He amazed the owner of the local medical marijuana dispensary, who made Egon an honorary store mascot. Much to the dismay of the owner's dog, who lives at the store.

Egon had a fascination with flushing toilets, resulting in some hilarious photo ops. And bathtubs. He was just big enough standing on his hind legs to sense there is *something* on the other side of the tub, but not big enough to easily scale the bath tub rim, which led to often frustrated back and forth pacing, hind legs on the floor, front legs seeking purchase on the bath tub rim. We referred to this as "Egon's Dance of the Bath Tub Rim". He performed the dance with every bath tub he encountered in his life.

Egon was named after Egon Spangler from Ghostbusters, specifically after Bill Murray's line "Egon - your mucus!" (If you cannot picture that scene you've never really seen Ghostbusters)

Egon will always be loved and fondly remembered.

"Ferrets are organ donors - they give you their hearts". And, when you're not looking, they will steal your wallet, cell phone, favorite book, remote control and every padded FedEx envelope they can get their paws on.

Here is a link to another blog about Egon, with pictures:
http://blogs.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog.view&friendId=362117&blogId=533393928

Mentoring

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

One of the joys of being a mentor

to someone I deeply care about is

to see that person achieve great things

seemingly without effort

with an amazing amount of passion, zeal, grace, poise

and last, but not least, a great sense of humor,

and a giving, generous heart

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

"Only in America" ~ Coffee, Tea, or.... ??

I've decided to start collecting "Only in America" items to add to this blog. Here's the first installment:

Question of the day:

If you were to found a grassroots political movement named after a beverage, what would it be?

http://www.marconews.com/news/2010/mar/27/guest-commentary-coffee-party-just-blend-usual-eli/?partner=yahoo_feeds

Coffee and tea are already taken.

But these are still available, last time I checked:

Chai Party

Yerba Mate Party

Kool-Aid Party

Mangosteen Juice Party

Sparkling Water Party or Pellegrino Party (I like the sound of this one, even though Pellegrino might object)

There won't be an OJ Party. The whole OJ thing has been done to death.

Alas, in a language/culture that uses the same word for "political organization" and "celebration" it's only a matter of time until the rise of the

• Beer Party

And, shortly thereafter, the

• Imported Beer Party

* * * And that will be the end of the beverage-based political party fad * * *

The Bermuda Triangle is in Oregon?

So what went on here?

http://www.katu.com/news/89251767.html

Did a WWII-era plane crash in Oregon 60 years ago and remain undiscovered

or

Are we seeing the remains of a failed time travel experiment with alien technology and props from the Bermuda Triangle?

You decide.

(Apparently there are still loggers in Oregon. How quaint.)

And more details have emerged:

http://www.katu.com/news/89307142.html

SpaceShip Two

Sir Richard Branson is my *hero*!!

http://www.space.com/missionlaunches/virgin-galactic-spaceshiptwo-carry-test-100322.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+spaceheadlines+(SPACE.com+Headline+Feed)