The ferret with 9 lives (7 left!)

A while back I posted about the time we rescued our beloved ferret fur-son, Gumby, who was hanging out of our 3rd floor window, clinging to life with one little claw. We were so lucky to have heard his little squeak and had time to save him that time. On Friday, we weren't so lucky.

I was at work when my husband, Mike, called me in a panic to tell me that he couldn't find Gumby. At first I wasn't worried because we always let him run free around the apartment during the day and he usually finds the best hiding spots to take a nap in. Like this...

But a couple of hours later when he still hadn't showed up, I began to panic. Mike was cleaning the apartment and had left the infamous "window of doom" open to let in some fresh air so we had a feeling that Gumby had decided to go exploring up there and then slipped and fell out. Mike spent hours searching outside, up and down the street, and every nook and cranny and when I got home we went out again to search the neighbourhood with our flashlights. No sign!

Although I wasn't too optimistic about his survival (it's freezing at night and he would be injured from the fall), we printed out MISSING posters and stapled them to lampposts on our street on Saturday.

I'm pretty sure this is the first time many people have seen a Missing ferret poster.

I hadn't stopped crying since the previous day and by Sunday I was a mess and my eyes were totally bloodshot.

Sunday afternoon I was in the shower (mid-shampoo) when Mike bursts into the bathroom screaming "Someone found Gumby!!" I jumped out of the shower (soap still in my hair) and flooded the apartment while jumping up and down and trying to listen to what the lady was saying on the telephone.

5mins later Mike came back with a very tired looking ferret who had apparently not eaten too much in 2 days and was limping so after giving him a big bowl of his favorite food, I went to buy the hero's a box of gourmet cupcakes as a thank you.

We are just so delighted that Gumby is now safe and sound back where he belongs and it feels like such a miracle that he survived that fall and then was found and returned to us.