Ferret drama and just ordinary drama

Yep, poorly ferret is poorly again. After an unsuccessful attempt by my vet to diagnose what was wrong with him last month (both blood tests and a skin scrape were taken, but the results of both were inconclusive), Monty has spent most of the weekend either throwing up or just feeling sorry for himself. So we've been to the vets this morning and he's currently staying there to get fluids/food/antibiotics into him as he hasn't eaten at all since Saturday.

Ordinary drama is much less dramatic in comparison as I've now left Dysfunction Central Ltd and am currently in the throes of induction and waiting to see how much work I'm going to get. I've actually picked up two sessional posts for the same folks so in theory I should get enough from these combined to live on, but at present we're just sorting out what I'm going to be doing and it's all a bit hypothetical while this is done.

I'm just glad to be out of the ongoing craziness, as I wait to see if I get paid for my last few weeks and also decompress/start to pull stuff together for my new job. Sadly, the course I was hoping to do (which should have started last week) has been put off till January at best - assuming there's enough interest at that point - though that does at least mean I haven't spent the fees yet. In the meantime, my new employers are saying all the right things about CPD and support of which I got exactly zero with the last lot (though a lot of passive-aggressive emails and hideous amounts of paperwork) so it's all good.

Of course, it's also this time of year that thoughts turn to NaNo, but that might be a commitment too far considering I haven't actually written anything in 6 months and have outstanding WiP to finish. So, in general terms, I suck.

RIP Monty (2009-2014)

Not particularly a surprise when I got a call about an hour ago to say that Monty had passed away at the vet's - they'd been trying to feed him by hand all day and he'd just not responded at all.

To be honest, when I left him there this morning I didn't really expect anything different as a result, but I guess there's always that slim chance things might not be quite as bad as you think they are. Ferrets are buggers for going downhill very quickly, because of how fast their metabolism runs, and I've learned to factor that in a while back. He hadn't been the solid little oik you see in the photo above for quite a while...

He was about 6 years old, which always seems to be when they start to get old rather than middle-aged, though the one he leaves behind is still as mad as a kit a fraction of his age. I got him and his compatriots in November 2011 and he didn't have a name till he had his first trip to the vet last summer. I didn't think 'fat lump', which was what he got called more often than not, was a name they'd think was appropriate so had to think of something for him (afterwards realising that there were shades of Withnail to it all: "Monty, you terrible [expletive]" being one of that movie's classic lines).