Introducing Anya ...

So. There's a thing that happened Thursday.

 Specifically, this:

Or, to put it another way, this:

I don't know how old she is or where she came from. Short story of it is, she was originally named "Plucky" but I chose "Anya" (Russian diminutive meaning "grace, favor" and Sanskrit as "inexhaustibleness") as her new name, she's adrenal and she's deaf.

Long story of it is, is that Thursday my sister and I walked into Petco to get some bulbs for one of my betta's tanks (I'm in the process of setting up a 5g for him). Right there, right there in front of me is a group of customers looking at these displayed aquariums. They're muttering to each other and I walk up to look at them (the tanks are actually holding some critter, and at this time I'm about .8 seconds from bitching my head off. No critter beyond a FISH (and some suitably sized reptile/amphibians) should be in a TANK).

Next thing I know, the ferret that was in there loses her mind as she lays eyes on me, trying to knock the screen off where it's being held down by a rock and trying to slither out. I walk over and hold the lid down, as the other customers are laughing and exclaiming how much that ferret apparently wants me, etc etc. I read her little blurb taped to the table the tank is sitting on (something like: My name's Plucky (age unknown). My owners gave me up because I suddenly became aggressive to their boy ferret.")  Her price was $50.

I'm thinking, oh that's sad. But I don't WANT another ferret, and I can't afford another one anyway. I start walking away, she moves to keep me in her eyesight and keeps scrabbling to get out, and as I turn my head to get a final look at her, I see that her tail, hind legs and rump are mostly bald with sporadic bursts of coarse hair. I think, oh my god.

 I turn to my sister, who by this time is making puppy dog eyes at me and saying "but she wants you! Aren't you going to buy her?" (to which I had been saying, "no no no. I can't afford it.").  I say, "holy god, I think she has adrenal disease. They gave her up, and didn't say 'oh hey, by the way ...'"

I start trying to find someone to explain this to. I finally find some ass, explain the situation and add, "you need to get her seen to, and you need to list it on her paper, so potential buyers know about it. She'll need extra care."

He didn't care. None of the employees did that were on that shift. They just kept saying, "well, we weren't told that. We weren't told that. We weren't told that," until I was about to scream.  Finally I said, "Oh my god, I'll buy her. Jesus, just reserve her because I have other errands to do still."

So, I paid the $50 dollars and I have a deaf, sick ferret of unknown age to call all my own.

I took her to a vet yesterday, got a visual confirmation of ACD, approval of melatonin implant as palliative care method (not that I cared what they thought of THAT, but still), and was told that she was otherwise seemingly healthy and weighed in at 1.8 lbs. She has an appointment on Thursday morning, alongside a sick Mr. Hiko, to get implanted at our primary vet.

She's still on kibble, and I think she'll be extremely difficult to switch. She likes routine and patterns and anything that disrupts those things she vehemently dislikes. So yay. Worst comes to worse, I at least want to get her on a better kibble than the Marshall's mess she's eating now. She's also staying in Rula and Neera's room, in the single story FN I have.  I doubt I'll try integrating her, but so far their staggered playtimes are working just fine.

That's it for now.  I'll update her vet visit when it happens, and also post about my poor sick boy, Hiko.