August 99
04.08.99
Wednesday I had a local show to go to. I didn't feel like going, I was still very tired from the CLA. But I did go in the end. The ferrets were quite a big hit with the kids. Especially laid back Mason who fell asleep on kids' laps. :-) Lorna helped again, she went to the show with a neighbour who took horses to the show and when Lorna was finished with showing the horses, she came to help me. :-)
07.08.99
Friday 6th my neighbour Lorna and I drove to Brecon which is 80 miles away to do the show on Saturday 7th. Sheila from Bolton Ferret Welfare usually does the show but couldn't this year as they had another show on the Sunday and it was too far to go for her and Ron and the old Land Rover. We have a nice and big marquee there and loads of tables and chairs. We put the tables up when we got there and put our 4 cages on top. It rained a lot in the night and I was worried that the marquee would leak but it didn't. I was also afraid that it would rain all day Saturday but it was dry when we got up and stayed dry and the sun came out a few times. Just as well it was cloudy for most of the day, at least the ferrets didn't get too hot. We had a nice sales table because Sheila had given me stuff to sell, ferret badges, fridge magnets and key rings. Some magazines. Plus I had a table with ferret information. At first it was very quiet and I was afraid that nobody would come to see the ferrets but then we got a mad rush and at one point I had 8 ferrets out for stroking... But I didn't like having all out so then I only had 4 out at the most after that. We also played some ferret roulette.
10.08.99
Lorna adopted the jill and her hob kit. When we came back from the CLA Game Fair, she asked if I was going to re-home the jill and kit and I said yes so she said that she was thinking of adopting them. I thought she had become very close to the 2. She decided she wanted to have them straight after the CLA but first she had to get her parents on her side. It took a few days and her parents were not happy at all at first but then they let Lorna have the ferrets and on Tuesday 10th she fetched them. She's keeping them in her bedroom and her mum said soon afterwards that they do not smell, she had been concerned about the smell. I'm happy about Lorna having the ferrets because I know they have gone to a good home and I did like them a lot and only wanted to let them go to a good home. And now I can also visit them and Lorna and I can take our ferrets for a walk together.
22.08.99
A family came today to adopt 2 ferrets. The 2 boys wanted 2 ferrets so I let them have a look at the 5 rescues and they decided to take the 2 polecat jills. They signed my protection contract and gave me the money for them (to cover their vet costs) and said they'd fetch them next weekend. They were on holiday, came from Cardiff which is 100 miles away but they were on holiday between here and Cardiff and wanted to fetch the ferrets when their holiday was over. Well, the next day the woman phoned and said their clothes stank when they got back to their caravan and some friends commented on the smell on their clothes and had asked where they'd been... So they were not sure they wanted the 2 jills. I said they were not spayed, yet, and will smell less once they've been spayed. I mean I personally don't smell anything bad on them and didn't find there was a big difference between the rescues and my girls. So I said to them different people have a different toleration (?) towards smell and they should think about it, not that after they have them spayed they still don't like their smell and then don't want to keep them... The woman said they'll think about it and phone me again. At the end of the week she did phone again and said they decided not to take them...
After the family had visited me on the Sunday, a man came, he'd been in contact a few months earlier and wanted to adopt some ferrets. He'd wanted 2 or 3 jills and could've had the 3 jills if I'd known that the people would not want them after all. Instead he took the 2 castrated hobs. He was a nice bloke and wanted them for company. He'd wanted jills because of the smell, he will keep them in his flat and thought jills smell less than hobs but the hobs don't smell because they've been castrated so it doesn't really matter now. He's got e-mail and I hope we will stay in touch and he doesn't live too far away, either.
29./30.08.99
Lorna and I did another show at Margam Park which is near Port Talbot/ South Wales. We helped Thorr from The Wirral Guild of Ferreters. We were in a huge marquee with other people, Lorna and I were the first to arrive on the Saturday so we set the ferrets up by the exit, used some more space than we were supposed to. We only had 2 tables and 2 chairs but the group next to us didn't need their tables so we used them to put the ferret cages on.
Then Thorr and his son Siggi and their friend Nigel arrived. They came in Nigel's car and with his caravan so the 3 men slept in the caravan and Lorna and I slept in the marquee with the ferrets.
Sunday the show started but it took a while before people started coming into our marquee but soon there were loads of people. Just as well Lorna was there as well, I couldn't do it on my own, there's just so many people wanting to hold ferrets or asking question. It's really good though.
Anyway, Thorr and Siggi went for a walk around and when they came back they said there was a man selling ferret kits in another marquee. They said the state of the ferrets was horrible. So Nigel took Lorna and I to the tent, it was really hot in there and the kits were in a cage the size of a shoe box (no kidding!) with neither water nor food... So I nudged Nigel and asked him if he would say something to the man who was selling them but he said "no, you go and talk to him". So I did... I asked him whether he didn't think the ferrets needed water and he was offensive immediately. He said they'd only been in the cage for a short time and asked if I had ferrets. He was pretty nasty so I said that I run a ferret welfare. Nigel then went to talk to police and a steward so they'd stop the man from selling the kits. You're not allowed to sell animals in public places unless you've got a license. It's in the Pet Animal Act. We were told later that the man had been asked to leave. But when we looked in the afternoon, the ferret were still there, in a slightly bigger cage but still without food or water.
Monday the man was there again, with some more ferrets. They were in a double cage the size of 2 shoe boxes... No food or water. So Nigel got the RSPCA to come. I went down there with Nigel and the 2 inspectors and Nigel sent me back to get water for the kits. We just stared giving the kits water (Nigel had opened the cage) when the man's daughter came. She started moaning that we opened the cage and said they were her dad's ferrets. We said they needed water and the woman said they were used to milk and that her dad had ferrets for 50 years and knew how to look after them. Okay. That's probably why they were so thin because of the milk giving them diarrhoea and depriving them of nutrients they needed. Their nails were over grown as well. Then the man appeared with his wife. Started having a go at me right away. "Not her again, she was in here yesterday moaning about the ferrets not having water." He made the whole issue about the ferrets not having water when the inspectors were there because he'd been selling the kits in a public place without a license. But he kept shouting at me about the water. Blamed me for everything even though it was Nigel and Thorr who called the RSPCA. The inspectors kept the kits as evidence and said they'd go and have a look at the other ferrets the man had and they led the man and his wife and daughter away. Nigel and I stood by the tent and watched them walk off...