May 99

20.05.99

I fetched a sandy rescue hob from Karen's vets. I stayed with Karen for a week because we were going to the National Ferret Fair and her vets had a stray hob and had phoned me to ask if I would take him off them. I said I would. I phoned the vets before fetching him and asked them if they could castrate him for me and when I went to fetch him, he had been done. I went to pay for him when I picked him up but a vet told the receptionist that I wouldn't have to pay for him so I was very surprised and found that very kind of them.

I called the ferret Guy for the time being and he was a funny character. I took him shopping on a harness and lead and didn't think he would bite anybody because he hadn't bitten me. Big mistake! In a DIY store a woman bent down to stroke him and he bit her hand, blood dripping down and I was standing there and felt very guilty and uneasy...

Saturday, 2 days after picking Guy up, Karen and I drove to our friend Jane to stay with her for a night before going to the National ferret Fair. On the Sunday we all drove to the NFF and met our friend Jacqui there, somebody had stolen all her ferrets :-( so I told her that if she wanted Guy then I would be happy for her to have him. She did fall in love with him but he bit her all over... :-( I think he was upset with all the changes he'd been through and then the travelling and not having a steady place he could call home. Plus his hormones hadn't settled down, yet. Anyway, he bit Jacqui's hands, feet, face (even though the latter 2 were her fault...) and then Guy went on to bite her husband so he put his foot down and said he wasn't happy taking Guy...

So Guy came back with me, first back to Karen's where I took him for a walk every night which he enjoyed sooo much and he was happy to be back at Karen's, a place he already knew.

A few days later (26th May) I drove back home, almost a week after I fetched Guy. I let him have runs in the house and took him for walks and he was becoming such a happy ferret, he didn't bite me at all and neither did he bite friends who visited. I really started to like him a lot, more than I should have.

29.05.99

I got a call from a lady who wanted a ferret for her daughter, her daughter had wanted one for months. So I told her about Guy and that I was looking for a home for him and I offered for her and her daughter to visit and have a look at him. They came the same day. The daughter was very good with the ferrets, they first sat in the ferret room for an information talk and so I could see how the daughter handled the ferrets. She was fine. I let her handle Guy and he only slightly nipped her, he didn't draw blood and I think he was just a bit stressed again because there were 3 new people (the lady's son was there as well). They all handled Guy, the son was not too sure about Guy though. In the end we all sat in the lounge and had Guy running around and I asked the lady whether they wanted to take Guy or wanted to think about it and the lady said that she didn't know about her daughter but she surely had fallen in love with Guy. She'd had a sandy hob many years ago so that's partly why she liked Guy so much. I felt totally gutted, I had fallen in love with Guy as well, he was a sensitive ferret and didn't handle change too good and I felt like I had just given one of my guys away... :-( But I knew it was best if I re-homed him and I looked at the girl and she had this huge smile on her face so I thought at least I made her happy...

But it took a long time before I felt better, 2 weeks later I got a letter from the lady saying that Guy had stopped nipping her son and the son had lost his fear and the daughter loved Guy to bits and Guy was allowed to have a run in their lounge a lot and would run circles around her daughter and made everybody happy. She said Guy was very affectionate and playful and it looks like they kept his name...