Binky came home several months after Moki, and was quite a tiny brown bundle of fur. She did little more than nuzzle into Moki's side her first night and cry. Poor Moki wasn't sure what to do with Binky, but she comforted her for her first few weeks and played big sister to the little ferret. Binky and Moki would be our only ferrets for a full year and they developed a close relationship that nothing could diminish -- not even competition for raisins.

Binky was as sweet as Moki was shrewd, and she was always a good ambassador ferret at public outreach events. Binky was also our most arboreal of ferrets (the mantle has since passed on to Kyra) and we would find her at the summit of the most difficult climbs. Binky loved to climb to the windows and gaze out, so we were saddened when she developed cataracts at a very young age. Blindness had little affect on Binky's climbing abilities, nor her playful nature and active body. Binky always had a weakness for biting toes in socks, from which we were never able to wean her.

Binky readily accepted all other ferrets, and so when Kiva, Tegan, and finally Bongo joined her family group she greeted each as a close friend and playmate. Binky's favorite always remained Moki.

Binky died unexpectedly on November 8th, 1997 exactly two weeks after her cage mate, Tegan, died. Binky had a form of lymphoma that attacked her intestines, part of which went necrotic. We tried to have the tumors and bad length of intestine removed, but the cancer had progressed too far. With all of our other ferrets who passed away we had several months of illness with which to prepare for the loss. We had less than a week's notice with Binky and were emotionally devastated by her sudden death.

Binky lives on in our memories. Binky was the only ferret I ever had dreams about -- dreams that ceased after she died.