May 00

02.05.00

I know I didn't want to rescue any more ferrets but there's always an exception... Some people got in touch with me a while ago wanting ferrets and could I help them. Well, they phoned me over the weekend and they'd got 2 polecat hobs that were supposed to be pet ferrets and one died on them and the other they said was evil. The man phoned me up and was really distressed and said he'd had 15 puncture wounds and the ferret bit his son and with a 2 year old baby they couldn't have a biting ferret around. So I told him I'd see what I could do. I thought about it for an hour and then I asked Pete if we could go and fetch him because I'd like a challenge and who'd want a biting ferret anyway? I mean if I hadn't taken him who knows what would've happened to him... So I phoned and arranged to come Tuesday.

The ferret was in Newport, Gwent, so we first went to see Karen and then the three of us went to fetch the hob. We got there and they brought the hob (Bubbles) into the house and he didn't bite at all and when we got home he still didn't bite and I washed him and at one point he did nip but nothing bad. Only his hormones... I've got my guests Vicky and Tricky here and I let Bubbles run with them and he did go for Tricky a little, bit her scruff and dragged her but only for a few seconds and then he lost interest. And he spent the night with them and was fine so now he's with the girls so at least he's not on his own. And he's such a big boy and sooo cute!

But two days later he did bite me, it was my own fault I think, I played rough with him and was happy when he gently play nipped and then let him sniff my arm and that's when he went for me and repeatedly bit my arm and locked his jaw. Pete got him off me in the end but it was scary! And Pete got bitten in the process as well. ;-) Bubbles tried to bite Pete's leg another time but Pete quickly jumped backwards and only got 2 scratches.

I partly got the hob because I know somebody from around here who wants 2 ferrets so I thought he'd probably love to have Bubbles. It's okay to rescue a ferret when you sort of already have somebody good lined up to take him. At least I won't have to worry about him then. :-) And luckily I was right and Cris was happy when I told him about Bubbles and it looks like Bubbles will be going to him in 1-2 weeks when Bubbles' hormones have gone down, he's only just been castrated and I hope that the biting is only due to Bubbles' hormones going wild and that all biting will stop once the hormones have settled. Because I would not re-home a biting ferret.

Something funny happened though. Bubbles was out with Vicky and Tricky and I decided to let my Igor out as well as he's usually friendly to "strange" ferrets. Well, he did chase Bubbles around a bit even though Bubbles is more than twice Igor's size! So next time Igor was out and chased Bubbles, Bubbles ran downstairs and into the kitchen and leapt straight into the washing machine where Igor couldn't follow! ;-)

07.05.00

Today we went to the car boot sale with the ferrets, I had some things for sale but nobody bought anything but loads of kids wanted to hold a ferret for 20p. They charge 5 Pounds per car for the pitch so I have to get that money back at least and then try to educate people but there are so many morons around, you can't imagine all the stories I've heard today and how cruel people are to ferrets. One bloke told me he'd had a hob and he used to bite so they killed him and then he had a jill who used to kill rabbits in the burrow when he took her ferreting so she was no good so he killed her. I'm not going to use the heartless wording that he'd used! Next a woman came and said she had 2 ferrets, hob and jill, and she separated them so they wouldn't breed so I asked why she didn't just get them neutered and that I hoped she'd done something to get the jill out of season. No, of course not. And then she didn't even believe me that most jills die when they are left in season. And of course some old know-it-all man came along and said how come his jill lived to 10 years and he never got her out of season? And then he just walked off rather than discuss it. Well, he was lucky but the jill probably suffered a lot. I gave that woman one of my info sheets, hope she listens to it! And then another man said he used to have polecats and went ferreting with them. And the one jill never came out of the burrow and when he put his hand down to get her, she used to bite and lock her jaw. And guess how he got her off? Cut a little bit off her tail! You know, just a little bit! And I'm sure he didn't mean the hair... The poor thing, of course she would let go when she's screaming with pain! And no wonder she bit, expecting to have pain inflicted on her as soon as she was removed from the burrow! Honest, I am so angry and sad when I hear of cruel people like that, I think I will print those stories out and put them on a board under "cruelty to ferrets"!

20.05.00

Bubbles went today! He hadn't bitten us at all for over a week and I trusted him so I thought he was ready to go to Cris. Cris arrived and I got Bubbles out and the first thing he did was bite Cris! He never bit us the way he bit Cris. He just kept putting his teeth on Cris' hands and arm and pinched him but Cris just fell in love with Bubbles and wanted him, he couldn't get over how big and handsome Bubbles is! :-)

Bubbles kept biting Cris for about a week, not too bad, hardly ever drawing blood. Bubbles must have had some bad experiences in the past... But Cris didn't mind and just went on spoiling Bubbles and I think Bubbles has stopped biting now, except for heads and faces... ;-) But then again Barney bites Pete's head and neck if he gets the chance and he bites my chin if I hold him too close to my face! ;-)

Anyway, I'm sooo glad that Bubbles went to such a good home and Cris loves him to bits and I think the 2 of them will bond real well and Bubbles will soon love Cris to bits as well. :-)

21.05.00

I did a little show today, well, had a small stall at a small show to do PR work and let people handle ferrets. The show was organized by The Orchard Trust who look after mentally disabled people. It was by The Forest of Dean which is near Newport where Karen lives and about 140 miles away! We thought it would be raining all day long but once we got there, we did have *no* rain at all, it was even warm enough to just wear a T-shirt most of the time. I just took my 10 and left Hope and the babies home. We stopped at Karen's on the way there and back but Karen didn't come with us to the show. It was a shame, I think a day out would have done her good... Anyway, we had a lot of people come and visit the ferrets and lots of kids holding them. I took some pics as well, there was an old lady and she sat on our chairs to watch the line dancing which was close to us and then she started stroking a ferret that the kid next to her was holding and she gave me 20p so I got Baby out for her to hold and I took pictures of her, sooo sweet! :-) She was really good handling Baby and I think she had Tom, too.