January 99

13.01.99

I got a phone call at night, a man had found a ferret in his barn, the ferret looked very sick. He lived approx. 55 miles away so I asked if he could meet me half way. I was shocked when I saw the state the ferret was in. Really I didn't even know if it was a ferret or a polecat. The poor thing was emaciated, just skin and bones, he was paralysed and could only move his front legs a little and his jaw was locked as well. When I first saw him I didn't think he would survive but I was hoping that I could help him.

When I got home, I took the poor guy out of the carrier and tried to give him some Ensure but he didn't swallow it and died within half an hour... I tried to find out what could have been wrong with him and many people said it sounded like tetanus. I just felt so sorry for this little guy, he must have suffered a lot... :-(

16.01.99

I had to drive 100 miles to fetch my next 2 rescues, a man had phoned and told me he didn't have enough time for them. They were in Newport, Gwent, so I went to see Karen as well.

The ferrets were 2 young polecat jills, they were in a tiny hutch that might have been just about big enough for a rat and the hutch had hardly any ventilation. It was all wooden, the front door where there could have been mesh was covered with plastic with about 8 little air holes in it. There was a round hole in one side that was covered with mesh. The guy used to put a pipe into the hole and connect it to a slightly bigger all wire cage where the girls could have "exercise"... The cage was damp, dirty and a bit mouldy. The food was on the floor amidst the mess they'd done. I took the cage with me, gave it a good wash and scrub in the bath and let it dry and I might paint it a little and then it could do as a cage for a single rescue ferret, like for a very short time. I'll take the plastic front off and put wire mesh there though! It would also be a good cage to fetch a rescue rather than use the cat carrier.

The girls had never been handled but they got ferret food and the guy bought 8in1 ferret vitamins for them! Their coats were in good condition and they didn't look like they'd been starved. But their nails were very long and curled. But at least this bloke did the right thing by phoning me and letting me have them rather than keep them and especially in those conditions. He got them because he wanted to go ferreting but he didn't have enough time for them because of his work so that's why he gave them up. Karen had come with me to pick them up, she knew where the bloke lived. My neighbour Lorna had also come with me. When I got back home, Lorna helped me with cutting their claws and we let them run in the guest bedroom and did their new hutch for them. They were so hyper! First one of them started nipping me, not bad, and the next day the other one who I thought was much calmer started biting me... So both of them turned out to be biters, they even bit my legs but never really drew blood but the first one did grab my finger pretty hard and wanted to take my hand away somewhere. They seemed a bit frightened as well because everything was new to them, even me just wiping their cage with some kitchen paper and cleaning their toilet.

After 1-2 weeks they stopped the biting but they were still sooo skittish! I've never had frightened, shy ferrets that kept running away and hiding. Ferrets are supposed to be inquisitive and curious but these 2 were just timid all the time. When I called them it would take a few minutes before they plucked up the courage to come to me and they'd be bottle brushed, looking all scared... As if I was going to hurt them...