Another dog story

I know some of you think "What do dogs have to do with recovery? Is this a recovery blog or a dog blog?" That's a good question. This is a blog about recovery and it includes as its key theme joy in recovery -- whatever it is that makes your heart sing. In my case, it's often dogs and their wonderful faithfulness and unselfish love, often to their own detriment. Here's another tail [sic] of a brave dog whose devotion not only to his master but to the family cat cost him his life.

This week in Wisconsin, a disabled woman's cat started a house fire when it knocked over a candle. The woman apparently panicked and fell off the couch but could not get up because she had only one leg. Her assistance dog brought the woman the phone so she could call 911 and her artificial leg so that she could walk out of the house to safety.

The dog then returned into the home to rescue the family cat which was upstairs squalling, the woman recounted. Both pets died in the fire.
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How's that for a hero? I'm not sure I would have the courage to go back into a burning house to rescue anyone, let alone the family cat. Which leads me to the story of my poor ferret, Benny.

My dog Romy loved Benny, a crazy rescue ferret I adopted. About 12 years ago, my friend and I started a ferret rescue in Northern Arizona and I have rescued quite a few ferrets both there and two here in Missouri. They are really cool little guys, although a bit high maintenance.
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Anyway, I'd let Benny roam around the house with his pal Buddy, an older albino ferret. But Romy loved Benny the best. She and Benny would romp around the house, and although Romy has incredible prey drive, which is the drive that makes dogs chase and frequently dismember other small furry animals, Romy never hurt Benny.
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I noticed one day I hadn't seen Benny for 24 hours and I got a bit worried. I had last heard him running around upstairs in my house with Romy in hot pursuit. I looked for him for several days with no luck. I figured he'd made it into the garage, where he normally stayed, and was hiding.

I had a small dorm-style refrigerator upstairs that was open for the summer, airing out. I went upstairs and noticed the door was closed. I opened it, and inside was poor Benny, dead. I was heartbroken.
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I told my coworkers the next morning, and they had a hard time keeping a straight face. I personally didn't find it funny, but over the next few months I took a lot of good-natured kidding. They would tell me how I thought Romy liked Benny but that she'd no doubt lured the ferret up the stairs then said, hey, there's some good stuff in this thing, then shut the door on Benny deliberately.
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Benny's pal Buddy also almost met an untimely fate after Benny died. I was trying to sleep one night about midnight and I kept hearing a scratching noise. I ignored it as long as I could, but finally worried that I had a raccoon in the attic, I got up to investigate. The noise seemed to be coming from the closet where my heating unit was. I opened the door to listen, and I heard a scratching noise. It was coming from the heating unit. I knocked on the unit and frantic scratching responded.
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I got a screwdriver and removed a few screws from the humidifier and pulled it back as far as I could without bending it. Out popped a black nose. My formerly white ferret was stuck in the heater. I took another screw out and pulled her out. She was coated with black dust, but she was so incredibly happy to be rescued she didn't object when I put her in the bathtub to clean her up.
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I had been refinishing hardwood floors upstairs and removed a heater vent that was located on the floor. She apparently was running around upstairs and fell in. My coworkers took that one to the bank, again laying the blame on Romy for pushing her in. "Hey come over here and look!" Romy was alleged to have said. Then when she was peering down the vent, Romy pushed her in. They also suggested I could start a ferret-powered vent cleaning service. Coworkers are pretty cruel, really.
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But all was well that ended well. I don't have ferrets anymore, although I do occasionally miss them. And so does Romy.